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KY Hospital Systems Still Down 1 Week After Cybersecurity Incident

Taylor Regional Hospital in Kentucky is still experiencing phone line outages and delays more than a week after a cybersecurity incident took its systems offline.

KY Hospital Systems Still Down 1 Week After Cybersecurity Incident

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By Jill McKeon

- Systems remain down at Taylor Regional Hospital (TRH) in Campbellsville, Kentucky more than a week after a cybersecurity incident. The hospital has not confirmed whether the incident was a cyberattack.

On January 24, TRH posted an urgent notice on its website alerting patients that all the hospital’s systems and phone lines were down, including those at hospital-owned provider offices.

“We are working to restore our systems quickly and safely. In the meantime, TRH continues to provide quality care to our patients,” the notice explained.

“We appreciate the community's patience and understanding, and we apologize for the inconvenience caused by this event.”

TRH is maintaining a list of active phone lines as they work to investigate the cybersecurity incident. Around 20 phone lines were available at the time of publication, compared to just 5 a week prior. TRH is providing frequent updates on closures and diversions via its Facebook page.

“Our providers want you to know that their offices are open and you should not delay care if you need to be seen,” a January 26 Facebook post explained.

“Despite the outage, our offices now have temporary phone lines up and running.”

The hospital also requested that patients bring a list of current medications to any previously-scheduled appointments.

Routine outpatient labs will only be performed during limited hours until further notice, and patients are required to bring a written order. Chemo and STAT orders will be performed if necessary. The notice also said that patients should expect longer than normal wait times.

In addition, the hospital’s walk-in COVID testing clinic is only available on a first-come, first-served basis for two hours per day, and appointments are no longer available.

TRH said it will update its website with new information as it arises. The hospital has not yet provided an estimate on when its systems will be fully operational again.