Tri-City Medical Center appears to be recovering from a recent cyber attack, but remains mum on news of an apparent 100-employee layoff that has occurred since the digital breach occurred Thursday, Nov. 9.
In a short statement, hospital management said that the Oceanside facility is “making significant progress in the restoration of systems, though we do not yet have a firm timetable for full restoration.”
No information was provided on whether or not patient information was stolen during the attack, and Tri-City says its investigation of the incident is still ongoing.
A recent letter sent to members of the “Tri-City Family” by Dr. Gene Ma, the organization’s chief executive officer, dated Nov. 13 mentions that 60-day layoff notices have gone out to an unspecified number of employees, with the executive noting in writing that staffing levels are designed to serve a number of patients that was 24 percent higher than is currently the case.
“This reduction includes staff at all levels of the organization, including administration,” Ma’s letter states.
The letter did not specify the number of layoffs that are to occur, and no notice had yet been posted on the California Employment Development Department’s website, but an employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that 100 workers are affected.
That employee added that the attack on Tri-City appeared to be ransomware, a type of cyber crime attack in which hackers hold a company’s assets hostage demanding financial compensation before they will restore access to locked systems.
“Apparently, Thursday, a note printed out of every printer at the same time and then everyone was running around shutting off printers,” the employee said.
As was the case with an attack against Scripps Health in 2021, the employee said that Tri-City has been forced to revert to paper medical charts while its computers are offline.
Tri-City did not respond when asked to confirm those facts Wednesday.
