Watsonville Community Hospital in California is continuing to work through what they refer to as a cyberattack on November 29. The hospital’s network has been offline since then with staff reverting to “downtime” procedures using paper. The hospital has been able to continue to provide emergency, inpatient, and outpatient care but alerts patients that there may be some delays.
As of this morning, a December 4 update remains on the hospital’s website homepage.
We are experiencing a computer network outage but we continue to provide the full spectrum of care
We are experiencing a disruption of our computer systems. Our IT team, along with third-party IT specialists are working around the clock to restore systems to full functionality. In the meantime, we have implemented our standard downtime protocols, which essentially means we are operating on a paper system, including things like paper patient charting and paper prescriptions. Our staff is fully trained to operate this way and their focus is, as always, on our patients and providing safe, quality care. Our Emergency Department is fully open, although you may experience some delays. We are also providing all inpatient and outpatient care as usual. If you have any questions, please email us at info@watsonvillehospital[.]com.
The hospital has not indicated whether this was a ransomware attack or whether any ransom demand has been received. As of publication, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
What kind of creeps attack a small community hospital?