Working through the weekend was not enough to resolve a cyber attack at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside.
Hospital management said Monday that ambulance deliveries remain diverted from its emergency department and elective procedures remain canceled as the North County medical provider deals with the fallout of an attack on its digital assets that surfaced Thursday morning.
The hospital, management said, continues to operate in a state of “internal disaster.”
“Our staff has come together to ensure the care and safety of our patients,” a statement said. “Our emergency room remains open for the community that needs that level of care.”
The public hospital district still has not said whether it faces a ransom demand from the hackers that infiltrated its systems, causing it to shut down equipment in order to contain the spread of malicious software. Likewise, the organization, which said last week that it has hired an outside firm to audit the situation, has not said whether protected patient information has been stolen.
It is clear, though, that many are watching. Two class action law firms have published notices that they are “investigating” the breach, asking anyone who has been notified that their information was compromised to reach out.
Neighboring Palomar Health, which operates hospitals in Escondido and Poway, has seen increased patient volume since the attack forced Tri-City to curtail its operations.
“We were seeing about 60 to 65 ambulances a day, and we jumped up to about 90,” said Diane Hansen, Palomar’s chief executive officer, Monday afternoon. “
While some might wonder why the situation has not yet been resolved, a breach in 2021 at Scripps Health illustrated that recovery, which involves validating that all systems are uninfected, can take a long time. Scripps was off line for about one month before returning to full operations.
