An organization that supplies blood to hundreds of hospitals in the Southeast is coming back online after a July 29 ransomware attack.
One Blood, which has donation centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina, said Aug. 4 that it has started restoring its operational IT systems.
"Our critical software systems have cleared reverification and are operating in a reduced capacity. As we begin to transition back to an automated production environment, manual labeling of blood products will continue," said Susan Forbes, OneBlood's senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations, in a statement. "We continue to move in the right direction and anticipate solid improvement of the blood supply over the next few days.
The cyberattack disrupted the blood supply in several states, with OneBlood calling on over 250 hospitals to activate their critical blood shortage protocols. Some health systems delayed elective surgeries, while others sought different suppliers. University of Miami Health System held a blood drive to help relieve the shortage, CBS News reported Aug. 1.
The American Hospital Association warned hospitals Aug. 1 to review their contingency plans in the event of future supply chain disruptions caused by hackers.