A cyberattack forced the University of New Mexico Health System to divert ambulances and cancel clinic appointments Monday, interrupting care at the state’s only Level I trauma center.
The Albuquerque-based academic health system canceled appointments at more than 30 clinics across New Mexico. Patients were told not to come to its facilities for scheduled care.
The health system directed people with emergencies to call emergency services and said “non-emergencies should be delayed until further notice” in its public advisory.
Source New Mexico reported that an internal alert described a network security breach and instructed users to shut down and unplug desktop computers and disconnect mobile devices from hospital Wi-Fi.
“The cybersecurity threat is affecting the entire University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center,” the university said. It dismissed students and nonessential employees for the rest of Monday, while clinical and essential staff were exempt.
Both in-person and virtual classes were canceled in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and population health, the Albuquerque Journal reported. A university spokesperson told the newspaper that other parts of campus did not appear affected.
Separately, a BYOD claim indexed by ransomware.live alleged compromise of 36,000 machines, university and hospital networks, and sensitive student, employee, research and patient information.
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UNM has not corroborated those allegations or identified BYOD as responsible. Its public notice does not establish whether systems were encrypted or patient information was accessed.
University Hospitals in Ohio took digital services offline last week after unusual server activity, interrupting MyChart access and limiting its website. That system said Friday that patient care was unaffected, a narrower reported consequence than UNM’s ambulance diversions and canceled visits.
UNM said officials were working to resolve the cybersecurity issue. It had not announced a timetable for restoring normal patient services.
