Hollywood (Calif.) Presbyterian Medical Center staff declared an internal emergency on Friday after hackers forced the hospital's IT systems offline, according to a statement from CEO Allen Stefanek. An anonymous physician from the hospital told NBC Los Angeles that the systems had been having trouble for a week, leaving departments to communicate via fax machine.
The network shutdown has locked physicians out of EHRs and prevented staff from communicating via email. While the hospital has maintained that care has not been impacted, NBC reports some outpatients have missed treatments and others have resorted to driving around town to pick up test results and other medical documentation that would normally be delivered electronically.
The hackers are demanding the hospital pay 9,000 in Bitcoin, a digital payment system, equivalent to $3.6 million, before the systems are put back online fully operational, according to NBC. Mr. Stefanek told NBC that some emergency patients are being diverted to other nearby hospitals for care and that the FBI is investigating the attack.