BE ON THE LOOKOUT (BOLO): Individual Impersonating Physician

 

To: Administrators and Managers  From: Jo Tansey, Branch Chief, Acute and Nursing Facilities, Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division Please see this Be On the Lookout (BOLO) alert from HCA HealthONE, regarding an individual impersonating a doctor and attempting unauthorized access to multiple healthcare facilities.  While this BOLO alert was issued by Swedish Medical Center, this individual could attempt to do the same at other facilities. If you come into contact with this individual, please contact your local police.  If you have any questions about this message, please contact Melanie Roth @ 720-291-5929 or Melanie.Roth-Lawson@state.co.us.

Alert From Colorado Information Analysis Center: Block This Malicious Phone Number

 

To: Administrators and Managers  From: Jackie Erwin, Deputy Division Director, Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division This morning, we were notified that the Colorado Information Analysis Center (CIAC) was informed of threat actors calling a hospital in the Kansas City region multiple times yesterday, May 22, 2025, claiming to be a different physician both times and identifying those physicians by first and last name. The caller asked for help logging on remotely and resetting their password. The male caller has a distinct accent and is very soft spoken and used the following number: 910-224-1962. CIAC recommends that your organization block the number provided above, as well as review the phone messages received this morning. If one of your users did interact with the threat actor and/or the provided number, please work with your IT team to determine the risk landscape and potential remediation steps. Additionally, take the time to communicate with individuals who interact with users over the phone about the proper procedures to verify the identity of the individuals who call. Please also remember to be cautious of phone calls from unverified numbers which are unexpected, estrangement demanding, or out of character.  Thanks for being vigilant and not becoming a victim. You are encouraged to reach out to the CIAC Cyber Unit and cdps_ciac_cyber@state.co.us if you have questions or require assistance.

Notification for Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson & Larimer Co.'s from 4/6/24

 

TO: All Healthcare Providers in the following counties: Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer Counties FROM: Elaine McManis, Division Director, Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division Please be advised that, due to high winds, XCEL Energy is planning a public safety power shutoff in Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer Counties. For continuity of patient, resident and client services, providers may need to use generators to provide continuous healthcare support with durable medical equipment or ensure other methods of providing this continued healthcare support is available.  For home-based clients and patients, facility staff should check in with patients, residents and clients to make sure they have sufficient back-up power and/or supplies to maintain their needs (i.e. oxygen concentrators, portable oxygen, backup power for  trach/vent machines, etc.). More information on how to prepare for an outage may be found here: outage preparedness recommendations.  For more information on Excel's planned outages, see https://co.my.xcelenergy.com/s/outage-safety/update. If the message reverts to the home screen, select "Colorado" from the home screen and local information will be available. Stay in touch with your local public health agencies and health care coalitions for additional information. If you have any concerns with regard to patient care and services and need assistance, please contact Melanie.Roth-Lawson@state.co.us or 720-291-5929.

Cyber Alert - ALPHV BlackCat Ransomware Advisory

 

To: Healthcare Providers From: Jo Tansey, Branch Chief, Acute and Nursing Facilities,  Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division A joint cybersecurity advisory has been issued by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) that strongly advises healthcare organizations to implement the recommended mitigations to prevent a cyber attack from BlackCat/ALPHV group. While law enforcement was successful and caused a disruption for the ransomware group, the group claims it is still operational and is responding in force. The advisory includes updated information on the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) associated with the group and Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) from FBI investigations as recently as December 6, 2023.  In addition, the HIPPA Journal posted an article on December 20, ALPHV/BlackCat Claims Healthcare Restrictions Removed for Affiliates. If you experience any anomalous activity, please remember to report to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Colorado Information Analysis Center (CIAC) as well as the appropriate local and state authorities.

Department of Human Services issues cybersecurity threat

 

To: Healthcare Providers From: Greg Schlosser, Branch Chief, Health Care Education and Quality, HFEMSD The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) is urging healthcare agencies and other critical infrastructure to take immediate action to patch and harden network systems against the ransomware threat “Citrix Bleed.” The vulnerability allows cyberthreat actors to bypass password requirements and multifactor authentication measures, to access private healthcare information. Read more. HC3 released a Sector Alert on November 30, 2023, which outlines patches, mitigations, and workarounds. Please review and share within your organization, as appropriate. We will forward any additional information we receive. For more information, contact Melanie.Roth-Lawson@state.co.us.

Don’t Use Certain Brands of Saline and Sterile Water Medical Products by Nurse Assist Because They May Not Be Sterile

 

To: Healthcare Facilities, Agencies and Organizations From: Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers, health care providers, and health care facilities not to use recalled saline (0.9% sodium chloride) and sterile water medical products manufactured by Nurse Assist, LLC, and sold under various brands. On November 6, 2023, Nurse Assist, LLC announced a recall of the following water-based medical products because the products may not be sterile: 0.9% Sodium Chloride Irrigation USP (100 mL bottles, 250 mL bottles, 500 mL bottles, 1000 mL bottles, 3.1oz spray can, 7.1oz spray can, 3mL syringes, 5mL syringes, and 10mL syringes); Sterile Water for Irrigation USP (100 mL bottles, 250 mL bottles, 500 mL bottles, 1000 mL bottles, 120 mL cups, 10mL syringes, and 30mL syringes). These products were sold under the following brands: Nurse Assist, Cardinal, Covidien, Halyard Owens Minor, Idexx, Mac Medical, McKesson, Medichoice Owens Minor, Medline, Sol, SteriCare, Trudell, and Vyaire. The recalled products may be available as individual units or may be included as part of a kit. Recommendations for Consumers, Health Care Providers, and Facilities: Check your supply of saline (0.9% sodium chloride) and sterile water medical products (bottles, spray cans, cups, and prefilled syringes) to find out if you have any of the recalled products at home or in your health care facility’s inventory. Do not use these recalled products and follow the recommendations in the company’s recall announcement. Be aware that these recalled products may be available as individual units or may be included as part of a kit. If you have questions about this recall, contact Nurse Assist, LLC by phone at 800-649-6800 Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:30 pm (CST) or by email at productremovalinfo@nurseassist.com.  Report any problems with saline and sterile water medical products by Nurse Assist, LLC to the FDA. See Reporting Problems to the FDA. For a complete list of affected products and more details, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration information release.

Listeria associated with soft serve ice cream in long-term care facilities

 

To: Residential care facilities (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Group Homes, and Intermediate Care Facilities) From: CDPHE COVID-19 Infection Prevention Program CDC is investigating a Listeria outbreak linked to kosher soft serve ice cream and advises long-term care facilities, hospitals, and other institutions to not serve any flavors of “Soft Serve On The Go” ice cream cups. One person who was ill in this outbreak was served this ice cream cup while residing in a long-term care facility. Listeria was found in a “Soft Serve On The Go” ice cream cup collected from another ill person’s freezer, and laboratory scientists are working to determine if it is the outbreak strain of Listeria. On August 9, Real Kosher Ice Cream recalled all flavors of their “Soft Serve On The Go” ice cream cups. Recalled ice cream cups were distributed to multiple long-term care facilities nationwide. Additional information specific to Colorado:  Listeria (from a normally sterile site) is a reportable condition (within four (4) days). Only test people who ate the recalled ice cream and have symptoms. Stool culture for Listeria is not recommended.  Email questions about Listeria to cdphe_food_enteric_water_diseases@state.co.us.

Facilities may have received a notice from food distributors regarding a recall of select lots of Aunt Jemima (Pinnacle Foods Inc) frozen products due to possible Listeria contamination. Guidance for facilities that may have served the product, healthcare providers and laboratories is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByqZDBabyNVSc3JFWFB3ZnktdkE/view?usp=sharing

For more information, call your local health department. 

MDS Re-submissions needed

The Federal ASAP system that receives MDS submissions has discovered a problem that affects QM calculations. This problem affects how they count pressure ulcers at specific stages in M0300. This problem has been discovered and corrected. 

However, correcting the QM requires facility attention to past MDS submissions. Any OMRA submission between October 1, 2016 and November 4, 2016 should be re-submitted as a modification. This does not mean that the clinical data in the submission will change in any way, simply that the ASAP system needs a chance to load the answers to the M0300 series again.

In short, any assessment answering A0310C as anything other than 0 between Oct 1, 2016 and November 4, 2016 needs to be identified. It will need to be resubmitted as a modification, using Section X, with X0900Z selected. A typical reason for "Other" might be "National ASAP PU counting error".

Failure to re-submit these assessments means that your Nursing Home Compare ratings will not be reported correctly. It will not be listed as a deficient practice.

To view the national announcement of this error please go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByqZDBabyNVSMG1hUG1jam5oN28/view?usp=sharing. Meanwhile, current MDS submissions may proceed normally.

Questions?: Please email betty.metz@state.co.us. However, note that there are ongoing OASIS classes that may prevent phone availability for this issue until November 17, 2016.

Health Alert - Investigation of Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome and Request for Cases

Regarding:

KEY POINTS:

- CDPHE is investigating a cluster of Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome (TASS) among patients following cataract surgeries. All three patients identified received the same type and lot number of ophthalmic viscosurgical device (OVD). The investigation is ongoing.

- CDPHE recommends that health care providers and ophthalmologic suppliers check their supplies of OVDs for Amvisc Plus lot number D130087A, manufactured by Bausch & Lomb. This specific lot number should not be used on patients until more information is available.

- CDPHE requests that any cases of TASS diagnosed between January 1, 2015 - present where Amvisc Plus, (manufactured by Bausch & Lomb) was used, or cases of TASS where the type of OVD is unknown, be reported to the Communicable Disease Branch by contacting Devra Barter at 303-692-2706 or devra.barter@state.co.us.


For further information:

For questions or additional information, please contact Devra Barter (303-692-2706 or devra.barter@state.co.us) in the Communicable Disease Branch at CDPHE.