Unpatched Systems Are a Patient Safety Risk: Here’s How Healthcare Can Respond

By Dr. Deepak Kumar, founder and CEO, Adaptiva.

Cybersecurity delays in healthcare aren’t just an IT problem — they’re a patient safety risk. When systems go unpatched, cyberattacks can disrupt care, delay treatment, and even increase mortality. In fact, a McKinsey study found that 71% of hospitals impacted by cyber incidents experienced poor patient outcomes, and 12% reported an increase in deaths.

Despite these high stakes, many healthcare organizations struggle to keep pace with timely patching. The root of the problem lies in the fragmented mix of aging legacy systems and newer technologies, which complicates IT operations and leaves critical endpoints exposed. As digital transformation advances unevenly across the sector, slow patch cycles continue to undermine both security and care delivery.

To close these gaps, healthcare organizations must move beyond manual patching. By embracing autonomous patching solutions, they can accelerate remediation, reduce risk, and protect patient outcomes without sacrificing operational uptime.

Legacy Tech Is Slowing Healthcare Down

One of the most significant barriers to effective cyber defense in healthcare is the persistent use of outdated technology. Many organizations still rely on legacy equipment and software due to cost concerns, regulatory constraints, and the need for system interoperability. But this dependence on aging infrastructure makes it difficult to keep systems secure and patched.

Research shows that more than half of IT professionals find patching more difficult than identifying vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, cybercriminals can exploit known flaws in a matter of days, long before many healthcare providers are able to deploy fixes. With many organizations taking a week or more to patch, critical systems are left exposed to attacks that could compromise operations or endanger patients.

Healthcare systems must shift away from manual processes and adopt modern, intelligent patching strategies that can respond at machine speed.

Manual Patching Leaves Healthcare Exposed

The complexity of healthcare environments makes timely patching particularly challenging. Many systems like clinical applications and patient care devices cannot be taken offline without disrupting operations. As such, patching may be delayed for days or weeks, expanding the window of exposure and risk.

But the risks go beyond security. Downtime caused by patching delays can interfere with treatment schedules, lead to compliance failures, and put patient trust at risk. Manual patching also places a heavy burden on IT teams, especially in organizations with multiple facilities or geographically dispersed networks.

Automated patching tools eliminate these barriers. They allow updates to be rolled out consistently, during safe maintenance windows, and with minimal human intervention — reducing the burden on IT staff and minimizing disruptions to care delivery.

Protecting Healthcare IT in an Expanding Endpoint Landscape

From connected monitors and infusion pumps to mobile diagnostic tools, IoT devices are playing a growing role in patient care and clinical workflows. However, as these connected systems proliferate, they also increase the number of endpoints that healthcare IT teams must manage and protect, expanding the overall attack surface.

While many IoT devices run proprietary software that falls outside traditional patch management tools, they often interface with Windows-based servers, applications, and endpoints that are within IT’s domain. If those systems are left unpatched, they can serve as an entry point for attackers looking to pivot deeper into the network through associated devices.

Automated patching solutions help reduce this risk by keeping core IT systems, including servers, workstations, and laptops, consistently updated and secured. This limits opportunities for lateral movement and helps ensure the broader environment surrounding connected healthcare devices remains resilient against threats.

By centralizing and automating patch deployment across supported systems, healthcare organizations can strengthen their cyber defenses, reduce IT burden, and better protect the infrastructure that underpins patient care.

Past Lessons, Clear Priorities

The healthcare industry has weathered a wave of ransomware attacks in recent years, many of which disrupted care and highlighted systemic vulnerabilities. As we’ve seen, it only takes one employee mistakenly downloading malware to shut down ambulance services, close pharmacies, and take critical IT systems offline.

While these events have prompted investments in network segmentation, better access controls, and improved monitoring tools, one critical weakness remains: the slow, manual approach to patching. As long as known vulnerabilities remain unaddressed, even well-segmented networks and strong access policies can be undermined by outdated software, enabling malware to impact unpatched systems and devices.

To close this gap, healthcare organizations must make automated patching a foundational part of their cybersecurity strategy. By accelerating response times, minimizing manual intervention, and ensuring critical systems stay updated without downtime, autonomous patching helps safeguard both data and lives. In healthcare, every second counts, including the time it takes to patch a system.