Texas hospital continues diverting patients after IT outage: 5 updates

A Texas health system continues to contend with a ransomware attack that has disrupted its operations. Here are five updates.

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1. Lubbock, Texas-based UMC Health System, which operates University Medical Center, started diverting ambulances with emergency and nonemergency patients to other local hospitals Sept. 26 after disconnecting its IT network following a ransomware attack. The hospital is the only level 1 trauma center within 400 miles.

2. The health system said Sept. 30 that it is now accepting emergency patients via ambulance but continues to divert a “select number” of patients until its operations are fully functioning “out of an abundance of caution.”

3. UMC also said Sept. 30 that its employees are working “around the clock” to investigate and respond to the cyberattack with the help of third-party experts. “We will continue to provide the necessary updates to our patients and community as we learn more,” the statement said.

4. UMC’s urgent care and physician clinics remain open, as they have throughout the outage.

5. No ransomware group had taken credit for the hack as of Sept. 30, The Record reported.

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