IT outages at a Texas health system and an affiliated medical school and its physicians' group are affecting patient care across the northwest part of the state.
Lubbock, Texas-based UMC Health System took its IT network offline Sept. 26 following a ransomware attack. Lubbock-based Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech Physicians, which share IT systems with UMC Health, have been facing similar tech issues.
The medical school and its physician group are now in downtime, unable to access their EHR or receive patient portal messages or faxes. Their phone lines are experiencing intermittent outages as well. However, their clinics remain open, as do their pharmacies, albeit with reduced capacity.
"The IT outage affects many of the shared systems that the TTUHSC and Texas Tech Physicians clinics and UMC use in daily operations," Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center said in an Oct. 9 statement. "As a result, certain systems at TTUHSC are temporarily offline."
However, a UMC Health System spokesperson told Becker's that the investigation continues into whether the two events are related.
UMC Health System's flagship hospital, University Medical Center, is still diverting some patients due to the cyberattack. The health system said Oct. 4 it expects to make "substantial progress" in restoring its IT network in the coming days. University Medical Center is the teaching hospital for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.