Two North Jersey hospitals continue to turn away patients in wake of cyberattack
Two North Jersey hospitals continued to divert patients from their emergency departments Tuesday after they were hit with a cyberattack that prompted a computer network shutdown.
Hackensack Meridian's Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair and Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood have been sending ambulances and patients to other hospitals for at least 24 hours, according to a website that tracks hospital diversions. Hospital staff have been rescheduling non-emergency surgeries and other procedures.
"Our teams are continuing to work around the clock to bring our systems back online and return to normal operations," said Chiara Marababol, a spokesperson for the two hospitals.
The ransomware attack began on Thanksgiving morning, said a statement released Monday by Ardent Health Services of Nashville, which operates the hospitals under a joint agreement with Hackensack Meridian. The attack affected Ardent's hospitals in at least four states — New Jersey, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, press reports said.
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Ardent executives said they took the computer network offline and suspended all user access to its applications, ranging from its corporate servers to its clinical programs. The hospital and its "specialist cybersecurity partners" were working Monday to restore its systems.
But on Tuesday, Pascack Valley was still on a full divert and Mountainside was listed as having no available beds.
Some progress was made as the day progressed.
Both hospitals were able to provide basic care to patients arriving at their emergency departments, including a medical screening exam and stabilizing care. Mountainside was moved to "critical care divert" at noon, which allowed ambulances to bring non-critical patients to the hospital. Hospital staff were still asking ambulances to take critical patients to other local emergency departments, Marababol said.
"As we work to bring our systems back online, each hospital will continue to evaluate its ability to safely care for critically ill patients in its emergency room," she said. "Because this is rapidly changing and dependent upon a number of factors, our status may continue to change as the situation changes."
Despite the diversions, staff at nearby Vally Hospital in Ridgewood have not seen a substantial increase in patients coming into its emergency room, said Erin Blake, a spokeswoman.
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Ransomware attacks
Ransomware attacks involve hackers disabling key computer systems and demanding money to return them to service. Banks and government institutions have been targeted over the years, but hospitals are getting hit more frequently due to their likelihood to pay a ransom since they are dealing with life-and-death situations, IT experts say.
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The state-run University Hospital in Newark reportedly paid $670,000 in ransom three years ago to prevent hackers from publishing 240 gigabytes of stolen data, including patient information.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Two NJ hospitals continue to divert patients after cyberattack
