Nebraska Medicine was victim of cyber attack
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OMAHA, NE (WOWT) — Nebraska Medicine confirmed Thursday night that it was the victim of a cyber attack. The attack caused a significant downtime for its information technology system, leading to many postponed appointments throughout the week.
Nebraska Medicine says it notified law enforcement and activated extensive contingency plans. It has prioritized patients who have appointments or surgeries critical to their health and well-being.
In a statement, Nebraska Medicine said for the patients who were seen, staff used “alternative, standardized processes to record and transmit information manually.”
For patients with elective procedures and appointments that were not critical in nature, the appointments have been rescheduled with an apology for the inconvenience.
The health care provider said its emergency room has remained open and no patients have been diverted.
The statement further says, “The attacks on health care organizations are rapidly increasing, and we are constantly assessing our security measures to help prevent cyber security incidents. Our back-up and recovery processes assured that no patients’ electronic medical records were deleted or destroyed.
We are grateful for our innovative and proactive IT team for implementing procedures that are enabling us to restore operations very quickly. We anticipate that normal operations will resume in days.
The patience and professionalism that has been demonstrated by our staff and our providers during this difficult time has been remarkable, and we cannot thank them enough. We remain committed to providing extraordinary care, and will do everything we can to minimize any further disruption to our patients.”
Earlier this week, the FBI confirmed for 6 News that it was aware of the situation and had offered its assistance.
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