Watsonville Community Hospital officials confirmed Friday that a cyberattack caused their ongoing network outage, which has disrupted electronic systems and forced the medical facility to revert to paper-based operations.
The attack, which began last Friday, disabled the hospital's internet connection and electronic systems used for managing patient charts and prescription notifications. Hospital spokesperson Nancy Gere indicated the outage is expected to continue for several more days while third-party IT specialists investigate the incident.
While the specific nature of the cyberattack remains under investigation, including whether it involves ransomware, officials have not yet determined if patient personal information was compromised in the breach.
The hospital continues to provide emergency, inpatient, and outpatient services, though patients may experience longer wait times, particularly in the emergency department. Staff members have been assigned to manually deliver lab orders and handle paper-based documentation while systems remain offline.
This incident follows recent legal scrutiny of the hospital's IT infrastructure. A December lawsuit filed by bankruptcy liquidation trustee Jeremy Rosenthal alleged that previous hospital owners contracted an inexperienced IT management company, leading to consistently unreliable network performance and issues with medical records and billing systems.
The electronic health record system affected by the current outage dates back to the hospital's previous ownership, before its 2022 acquisition by the Pajaro Valley Health Care District through bankruptcy proceedings.
Hospital officials continue working with cybersecurity experts to restore systems while maintaining patient care through temporary manual processes.