Hospitals and outpatient therapy facilities in a minimum of three states are struggling to get their programs again on-line following a ransomware assault waged in opposition to their father or mother firm final week.
The cyberattack, which cybercriminals launched final Thursday, focused Prospect Medical Holdings — a Los Angeles-based firm that operates 16 hospitals and 165 outpatient amenities throughout California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The assault has brought on programs at lots of the firm’s amenities to go offline, forcing healthcare employees to revert to paper record-keeping. Not less than 4 Prospect-owned well being programs — Japanese Connecticut Well being Community (ECHN), Connecticut-based Waterbury HEALTH, Pennsylvania-based Crozer Well being and Rhode Island-based CharterCare — are nonetheless working to revive their on-line programs, in response to notices posted on their web sites.
“Upon studying of this, we took our programs offline to guard them and launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity specialists,” Prospect stated in a assertion Friday. “Whereas our investigation continues, we’re centered on addressing the urgent wants of our sufferers as we work diligently to return to regular operations as rapidly as potential.”
On Monday, Prospect didn’t reply to MedCity Information’ request for an replace about when its amenities will get all programs again on-line.
Along with taking programs offline, the ransomware assault additionally pressured some Prospect-owned emergency rooms to shut and ambulances to be diverted.
For instance, emergency departments at Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville Common Hospital — each in Connecticut — have been closed for hours on Thursday and sufferers have been despatched to different close by emergency care suppliers. These emergency departments have resumed operations, in response to ECHN’s web site. Nevertheless, as of Monday afternoon, the web site says that the next providers are nonetheless briefly closed till additional discover: elective surgical procedures, gastroenterology procedures, outpatient blood attracts, outpatient bodily remedy and outpatient medical imaging.
Just like the 2 ECHN-operated hospitals, Crozer Well being needed to divert ambulances for stroke and trauma sufferers from its three hospitals on Thursday and Friday. The well being system’s 45-bed hospital in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, nonetheless stays closed, in response to its web site.
Waterbury HEALTH, one other Prospect-owned well being system in Connecticut, can also be nonetheless experiencing system downtime that’s stopping it from providing its full scope of providers. In an replace posted to its Fb web page, the well being system stated that a number of imaging amenities and rehab facilities would stay closed via Monday.
The incident Prospect is experiencing is actually not the one cyberattack this 12 months that has affected healthcare amenities throughout a number of states. Final month, HCA Healthcare suffered a knowledge breach that impacted 1,038 hospitals and doctor clinics throughout 20 states. And in January, Neighborhood Well being Techniques fell sufferer to a cyberattack that uncovered protected well being data for 1.2 million sufferers throughout a number of states.
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