Photo By Greg Wilson/U.S. Army: MGRMC continues to rebound from its recent ransomware cyberattack.
Hospital says initial review shows patient-medical system not breached
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – The relationship between a person and their healthcare provider is private, and Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center is working to keep it that way as it rebounds from a ransomware cyberattack that began on Sept. 27.
According to Danny Smith, MGRMC Director of Marketing and Community Relations, the hospital immediately began an investigation and remediation process to attempt to bring the hospital’s systems back to operation.
On Oct. 4, Smith advised that the disruption had a limited impact on patient experience due to the hospital having previously prioritized redundancy and patient information safety in its care.
On Friday, Oct. 13, Smith announced that internal access to the hospital’s systems and data had been restored and patients could once again use the online patient portal to access their information.
“As an essential critical access hospital, MGRMC has a strong Incident Command structure,” Smith said in an email. “Following our processes, we implemented our downtime procedures, which proved essential and effective, and deployed our incident command team and our recovery team. Throughout the cyber-attack we experienced, patient care has remained our focus. Through immense work and dedication, our staff has remediated most issues as we continue to restore our systems.”
Smith said the hospital was still investigating if any patient information was compromised but initial reviews look positive.
“As previously reported, we have engaged an experienced firm to review impacted systems,” Smith said in his email. “Initial reviews have determined that the patient medical record system was not breached and we are finalizing our review of all systems to determine if any patient information was compromised. As we continue our investigation, we will communicate directly with any impacted individuals.”
“We are community owned and governed. We are proud of the 50-year relationship we have with the community and our focus throughout this challenge has been delivering exceptional care. The speed at which we have been able to recover is a credit to our dedicated staff going above and beyond with many long days and nights.”
