Two More California Hospitals Face Ransom Requests From Hackers
The demand to unlock the hospital computer systems is reportedly similar to what happened last month at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Kaiser Health New:
Hackers Seek Ransom From Two More California Hospitals
Hackers demanded a ransom from two more Southern California hospitals last week and federal authorities are investigating the case. Prime Healthcare Services Inc., a fast-growing national hospital chain, said the attackers infiltrated computer servers on Friday at two of its California hospitals, Chino Valley Medical Center in Chino and Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville. The company said the cyberattack had not affected patient safety or compromised records on patients or staff. (Terhune, 3/22)
In other health IT news —
Kaiser Health News:
Electronic Records Offer A Chance To Ensure Patients’ End-Of-Life Plans Aren’t Lost In Critical Moments
In a perfect world, patients with advance directives would be confident that their doctors and nurses — no matter where they receive care — could know in a split second their end-of-life wishes. But this ideal is still in the distance. Patients’ documents often go missing in maze-like files or are rendered unreadable by incompatible software. And this risk continues even as health systems and physician practices adopt new electronic health records. So advocates and policymakers are pushing for a fix. (Luthra, 3/23)