Florida hospital taking expectant moms, delaying surgeries

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A major regional hospital system based in northern Florida resumed seeing patients at its clinical practices on Monday, days after a security problem forced it to take its IT network offline.

But Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare was still being forced to use paper documentation, and non-emergency surgeries and out-patient procedures were canceled on Monday.

Some emergency room patients were being diverted to other hospitals, but the hospital was accepting patients expecting babies, the health care system said in Sunday’s statement.

Information technology systems were taken offline as a security precaution on Thursday after Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare was hit by an apparent ransomware attack. It had the hallmarks of such an attack, but the hospital has characterized it as an “IT security issue” that it reported to law enforcement. Victims often, at least initially, decline to confirm ransomware attacks.

“Our teams are working around the clock in collaboration with outside consultants to investigate the cause of the event and safely restore all computer systems as quickly as possible,” the statement said. “IT security events take time to investigate and resolve. Our investigation is ongoing and, as is typical in such situations, we expect it will take some time to determine exactly what happened.”

The hospital system, headquartered in Tallahassee, provides health care across 21 counties in northern Florida, southern Georgia and southern Alabama, according to its website.