Malware forces Atlanta area hospitals to stop accepting patients

The Atlanta, Georgia area's twin Gwinnett Medical Center hospitals in Lawrenceville and Duluth were forced to turn away all but the most seriously ill trauma patients two weeks ago because of a nasty bug — but not of the human variety. Beginning Wednesday, December 7, the computer network used by the two facilities was rendered unusable by what is believed to have been a computer worm, giving them no choice but to divert almost all ambulances and new patients to other area hospitals.

During the downtime, nurses and doctors were forced to rely on physical paperwork and the delays involved in manually transporting it throughout the facilities. They also lost access to patient records and other files on the network, although hospital administrators claim that no personal information was compromised and patient care was not affected.

The administrators also say they have no idea how the malware made its way onto the computer system, which was finally restored to full operation on Saturday, December 10.

[Image credit: Perkins+Will]

(Source)

This article was written by Randy Nelson and originally appeared on Tecca

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