Emergency rooms in at least 3 states diverting patients after ransomware attack

Hospitals in at least three states are diverting patients from their emergency rooms after a major cyberattack hit their parent company last week.

Hospitals in at least three states are diverting patients from their emergency rooms after a major cyberattack hit their parent company last week.

Ardent Health Services, which oversees 30 hospitals across the U.S., said Monday that it had been the victim of a severe ransomware attack in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, forcing it to take action.

“In an abundance of caution, our facilities are rescheduling some non-emergent, elective procedures and diverting some emergency room patients to other area hospitals until systems are back online,” the company said in a news release.

Spokespeople at three Ardent-owned hospital chains across the U.S. — Hillcrest HealthCare System in Oklahoma, Lovelace Health System in New Mexico, and UT Health in Texas — each told NBC News Monday that at least some of their emergency rooms were diverting patients to other hospitals while the company tries to fix the damage from the attack.

Ardent said it had shut down a significant number of its computerized services, including clinical programs and its use of Epic Systems, a program that tracks patients’ health care records.