A cyberattack at Community Medical Center in Falls City, Nebraska, forced ambulances to take critical patients elsewhere and disrupted appointments after the hospital locked down its computer system.
Difficulty sending diagnostic images to radiologists prompted the patient diversions, CEO Ryan Larsen told MSC News in a report published Monday.
Larsen described unauthorized access that damaged parts of the network over the weekend. Staff switched to paper, and some appointments were canceled, delayed or rescheduled.
“The Emergency Room at CMC is open and clinical staff is providing patients the care they need,” MSC News reported.
The hospital is a 24-bed critical access facility serving Richardson County and surrounding communities in southeastern Nebraska, with family medicine clinics in Falls City and Humboldt.
Replacement computers were being shipped to Falls City, and an entirely new network was being deployed. Bryan Health in Lincoln helped provide computers, according to the report.
Preliminary findings indicated patient information was unaffected, but outside specialists still needed to verify that assessment, MSC News reported.
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The report identified Qilin as the group involved. That attribution has not been independently established.
The imaging problem echoes an August IT disruption at Cedar County Memorial Hospital in Missouri. That hospital also partially diverted critical patients when it could not send images to radiologists. It ended ambulance diversion when routine operations returned Aug. 28.
Larsen expected slower service through much of this week. A full restoration date has not been announced in the public materials reviewed Tuesday.
