University of Rochester Medicine’s Jones Memorial Hospital, located in Wellsville, New York is currently dealing with a cyberattack that has inflicted some unexpected downtime on the organization.
The attack is believed to have begun on Wednesday December 27 and has caused disruption to some of its information servers. The details of the cyberattack is unclear and it has yet to be resolved. The cyberattack has been limited to Jones Memorial Hospital. No other locations are thought to have been impacted.
While some systems remain unavailable, Jones Memorial Hospital has announced on its online website that the financial and medical history of its patients does not seem to have been compromised. If the investigation uncovers a breach of health information, patients will be notified in due time. Further information on the attack will also be published on the hospital’s online portal as and when new information is uncovered.
The New York State Department and law enforcement agencies were notified of the attack by the hospital when the systems went down. Hospital IT staff are being aided by the IT departments at the University of Rochester, St. James Hospital, and Noyes Health to bring all systems back to their original full functionality.
Jones Memorial Hospital has processes in place for incidents such as this. Emergency procedures are regularly audited, and employees are trained how to behave to cyberattacks and system downtime. Consequently, medical services are continuing to be made available, with information being tracked manually on patient charts while its systems are offline.
However, with no access to electronic patient health information, the hospital is warning all patients to bring their insurance card with them for appointments, as well as full lists of medications and if available, details of their medical history.
IT Systems will be brought back up to speed as soon as is possible, but in the meantime, the hospital is maintaining patient safety and quality of care as best they can.