Great Plains Health Hospital Hit With Ransomware Attack

Great Plains Health in Nebraska is a recent hospital hit with ransomware, forcing the facility to launch downtime procedures during data recovery.

The hospital was reportedly hit with a ransomware attack on Nov. 25 which was detected the same day around 7 p.m. IT staff for the facility reportedly worked all night to reduce the impact of the attack on the hospital.

The ransomware attack reportedly took down email and traditional communication, leading the hospital to use paper versions of patient charts and paper communication between staff members.

“We are confident that patient information was not breached in any way,” said Great Plains Health CEO Mel McNea, according to a GPHealth Facebook statement. “We will however, do a full audit to further investigate.”

Despite their best efforts to operate as normally as possible, Great Plains Health was reportedly forced to cancel non-emergency appointments starting the next day. Between the impact of the ransomware attack and local weather concerns, patients with non-emergency appointments and procedures have reportedly been asked to reschedule. However, scheduled surgeries and certain imaging procedures were not impacted.

Great Plains Health reportedly continues to investigate the source of the ransomware attack with help from the FBI and State Patrol. Unfortunately, a full recovery could reportedly take months. But GPHealth is fortunate – in some cases, patient data is permanently destroyed.

Hospitals Hit With Ransomware in 2019

Ransomware attacks are a specific kind of cybersecurity attack in which hackers take control of a facility’s systems and hold them hostage until the organization pays a large sum of money – the ransom. Some businesses choose to pay the ransom in order to return access to their servers, but this doesn’t guarantee the hackers will stay away permanently.

There has been a recent increase in ransomware attacks targeting hospitals and other healthcare facilities. These attacks may be launched through phishing emails – messages that seem legitimate but actually contain a malicious link or attachment that gives hackers access to hospital systems. Attacks may also be launched through malvertising – advertisements containing malware.

In addition to locking healthcare providers out of systems and disrupting patient care, a hospital hit by ransomware may experience decreased care for critical patients.

Ransomware Impact on Patients

According to a study by researchers from Vanderbilt, the time it takes for a cardiac patient to receive an electrocardiogram reportedly increases by as much as 2.7 minutes if they are treated by a hospital hit by ransomware attacks, increasing heart attack fatality risk.

This lag in care reportedly remains for years after an attack. Even after three to four years, these facilities may experience care delays of up to 2 minutes.

Although 2 to 3 minutes may not seem like a large increase, every second counts when treating a heart attack patient in an emergency setting. The researchers have also speculated as to whether or not this care delay has caused an increase in patient mortality rates.

“Our hypothesis is that the time connection is driving the 30-day mortality rates,” one researcher said, according to PBS. “There’s a clear association for hospitals that saw these breaches. They definitely saw increases in 30-day mortality rate.”

Join a Free Hospital Ransomware Attack Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were a patient at a hospital or healthcare facility affected by a ransomware attack that impacted your medical care, you may qualify to join a hospital ransomware attack class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.