Florida hospital hit with IT security issue, postpones non-emergency procedures

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Florida hospital postponed all non-emergency patient procedures on Friday because of an IT security issue.

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital said that the IT security issue occurred on Thursday night, and that they were forced to postpone all non-emergency patient procedures and divert some EMS patients. The hospital said that it would only be accepting Level 1 trauma patients.

"As a precautionary measure, we have taken our IT systems offline," TMH said in a statement. "The good news is that our IT department quickly detected the issue and is working proactively to resolve it."

The activity described by the hospital matches that of a ransomware attack, but the hospital has not classified it as that yet.

The hospital also announced that all non-emergency and elective procedures for Monday also would be canceled and rescheduled. However, patients currently in the hospital do not need to be moved to other facilities.

"Patients will be contacted directly by their provider and/or care facility if their appointment is affected," TMH added. "We contacted appropriate law enforcement when this incident occurred, and we continue to work with them. "