The University of Rochester Medicine’s Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, New York experienced an unexpected downtime because of a cyberattack on December 27, 2017. The cyberattack disrupted some of the hospital’s information services. While the nature of the cyberattack was not disclosed, the public should know that only Jones Memorial Hospital was attacked and other locations have not been impacted.
Jones Memorial Hospital announced on its website that some systems were unavailable, but the hospital assured patients that their financial and medical information were not compromised. If there happen to be a breach of health information as determined by the investigation, the hospital will notify the patients accordingly. Updates on the attack and other new information will be announced on the website when available.
The hospital alarmed law enforcement and the New York State Department as soon as the hospital knew about the attack that caused the systems downtime. The hospital’s IT staff and the IT departments at St. James Hospital, University of Rochester and Noyes Health worked together to restore all systems to full functionality.
The fact that Jones Memorial Hospital had prepared for cyberattacks such as this had proven helpful. They regularly tested emergency procedures and they provided training to employees regarding the proper response to cyberattacks and system downtime. Because of the hospital’s preparedness, the patients continued to receive the medical services they needed. Doctors and nurses recorded information manually on patient charts while the systems are down. Because the doctors cannot access electronic patient health information, patients who are coming to the hospital for treatment or consultation need to bring their insurance card and the full lists of their prescribed medicine and medical history.
While IT experts are restoring all systems, the medical staff of the hospital focused on continually giving safe and quality patient care.