Study: Cyberattacks That Take Out Even a Single Hospital Should be Considered Regional Disasters

Christian Dameff, Medical Director of Cybersecurity, UC San Diego Health

Cyberattacks, such as ransomware, “can have real patient care impacts that extend far beyond a single effected hospital,” according to a new University of California San Diego School of Medicine study, causing disruptions at nearby regional hospitals.

The study, published in the May 8 online edition of JAMA, analyzed data from two emergency departments that were adjacent to a month-long health care ransomware attack on neighboring hospitals.

The study identified that adjacent hospitals to ransomware attacks may experience resource constraints from increases in patient volumes and ambulance arrivals, as well as increased waiting room times, patients leaving before being seen by a clinician, longer patient stays and increases in critically ill patients such as stroke victims.

The study’s authors (Christian Dameff, MD, first author of the study, assistant professor of medicine, emergency medicine and computer science and engineering at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine, and emergency medicine physician at UC San Diego Health; and Christopher Longhurst, MD, senior author of the study, clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine and chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Health) suggest that targeted hospital cyberattacks may be associated with disruptions of non-targeted hospitals within a community and should be considered a regional disaster.