The computer network used by medical professionals at hospitals in the One Brooklyn Health System is still down following an outage that began on November 19.
Medical personnel are unable to access patient medical records and cannot upload laboratory and test results to the electronic patient portals, according to a report by THE CITY.
Instead, the staff has had to backpedal to the days of pen and paper, and to view imaging results directly on the machines used for the tests.
The affected network includes Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale Medical Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center – the latter being one of two hospitals serving the Jewish community of Crown Heights.
It is not yet clear what caused the outage, nor is it clear when the network will be restored.
New York State Department of Health spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond told the news outlet that his department is aware of the incident and is “working with One Brooklyn Hospital Network to ensure patient safety.” He declined to comment further, THE CITY reported, including on whether the incident is due to a cyberattack.
One Brooklyn CEO LaRay Brown told the news outlet that the network “took certain systems offline to contain the disruption” once the incident was detected but offered no explanation about the cause or timeline for restoring service.
“Our IT team is continuing to work diligently with the support of third-party advisers to ensure that our systems are brought back online as quickly and safely as possible, and in a way that prioritizes patient care,” Brown said.
