Virus hits system at Erie County Medical Center

The Erie County Medical Center, a 550-bed hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., has been struck by a computer virus and in response has shut down the email, electronic health record (EHR) system and website of facility as a precautionary measure. ECMC’s Terrace View long-term care facility has also been impacted.

A virus was traced early Sunday morning at Erie County Medical Center, which is the key teaching hospital for the University at Buffalo, in accordance to Peter Cutler, vice president of communications and external affairs.

According to organizational protocols, Cutler claims that the IT team of hospital “shut our system down” and that as of Tuesday afternoon, he stated that it remained out of commission.

“The electronic health record (EHR) system isn’t running but it hasn’t been affected as far as we can tell,” he adds. Deployed on an assessment of its EHR, Cutler asserts that “at this stage we have not detected that there is been any compromise of patient health information.” At the similar time, he pointed out that all medical records are backed up and as an outcome are protected from being lost. For the time being, Cutler claims ECMC staff is using paper records.

“We are absolutely operational. It develops few challenges, of course. Individuals are working longer shifts,” he analyzes. “It has not had an effect on our ability to function.”

Cutler claims the hospital is expecting to restore systems as soon as possible; however he could not estimate how long it would take to restore all functionality. “We are in response and recovery mode. It is an around-the-clock operation right now.”

In accordance to Cutler, the FBI and New York State Police have been called in to inquire the incident. When inquired if ECMC had been hit with ransomware, he wouldn’t comment other than to say “what we know is that there was something that came into the system.”

As part of the ongoing investigation, the hospital is working with consultant GreyCastle Security in addition to federal and state law enforcement organizations to “evaluate the origin of this thing,” Cutler summarizes.