The Fortune 500 company, leader in American Health Care System, and Major Hospital chains, Universal Health Services (UHS), recently experienced a nationwide outage due to a ransomware attack. UHS said that it had handled the crisis well, but workers reveal the gruelling experience that the system blackout has caused, including a six-hour emergency wait and a COVID-19 scare in the site.
Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS), experienced a significant outage blackout in its computer systems as ransomware called 'Ryuk' attacked the systems of the major hospital chain in the United States. Several facilities, including major ones in California and Florida, were affected, rendering the hospitals with a significant crisis in providing health care.
However, despite the significant attack against the company, UHS assures its beneficiaries and patients that there are no compromises in the data of both employees and patients. UHS also said that it has been doing its best to provide quality health care to Americans, and it has been handling patient care and services.
UHS' statement seems to have done the trick to assure people of their concerns regarding the safety and availability of the hospitals to continue their operations. UHS uses a back-up, old-school documentation method with the pen and paper.
However, reports indicate a gruelling experience from none other than the company's on-site employees. These employees experienced the outage first-hand and reacted during Sunday and Monday's outage. Despite UHS saying that is was handled properly and that safe and effective patient care is delivered, the outage still takes a toll on the company.
UHS Workers and Employees: Horrible Experiences in the Hospitals
According to the Associated Press, several of the workers, doctors, nurses, and employees testified that UHS' chain of hospitals went through gruelling experiences that made them fear for their lives. A systems blackout is what someone would imagine, chaos within the hospital.
Workers reveal that the local scenes on hospitals plunged into chaos as systems outage occurred. A dreadful six-hour wait in the hospital's Emergency Rooms left people and patients without attention. Employees and people were also rattled with anxiety as COVID-19 patients were indistinguishable with the systems outage.
Doctors and nurses are also affected with an additional burden as the COVID-19 pandemic problem remains. The system outage happening at the same time is too much hardship for the health workers who are doing their best to cope with the situation.
UHS' Ransomware Attack
The Universal Health Services still does not confirms the alleged cyberattack against them, only saying that it is an ensuing tech and IT problem within its systems. However, UHS employees confirm on Reddit forums that it is indeed a ransomware attack.
UHS may not be known directly as the hospital's name; however, they own and manage a chain of health care providers across several states. UHS operates a whopping 250 hospitals around the country, meaning that it's system outage is a massive toll against patient care.
Several cyber analysts consider this as one of 2020s most significant US-based disputes and cyberattacks. The terrifying attack left one of America's most prominent health provider vulnerable and at-risk not only to technical problems, but also health concerns.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Isaiah Alonzo
