The computers at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles are back online after the hospital paid a ransom of 40 Bitcoin, worth about $17,000. Now it’s back to business as usual of being a mediocre hospital.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Hollywood Presbyterian President and CEO Allen Stefanek confirmed the ransom payment, but said earlier reports that hackers had demanded 9,000 Bitcoin, or nearly $3.6 million, were “false.”
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After 10 days of being offline, the hospital caved to the demand. “The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key. In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this,” Stefanek wrote.
He said the hospital brought the network, including the McKesson electronic medical record, back up on Monday, 10 days after the Feb. 5 ransomware attack.
“All clinical operations are utilizing the EMR system. All systems currently in use were cleared of the malware and thoroughly tested. We continue to work with our team of experts to understand more about this event,” Stefanek said.
He added that there was “no evidence at this time that any patient or employee information was subject to unauthorized access,” and asserted that patient care “has not been compromised in any way.”
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According to Stefanek, “It is important to note that this incident did not affect the delivery and quality of the excellent patient care you expect and receive from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.”
But do patients receive excellent care there? Perhaps Stefanek doesn’t read his hospital’s ratings.
Hollywood Presbyterian has a mediocre 3.1 out of 5 on Google. Among the comments:
If you have a choice of hospitals, NEVER SET FOOT INTO THIS PLACE I have since learned the locals call [it] “horrific Presbyterian.” Yes they are!!!!
and:
Labor and delivery admittance staff is evil. They forced my wife to sign some automatic payment plan based on some fictitious, ridiculous amount while she was on heavy sedatives. They are threatening to send the bill to collections if we do not keep paying this imaginary bill. It has been impossible to find anyone that actually knows what they are doing in this place.
It gets just two stars of five on Yelp. HealthGrades rates Hollywood Presbyterian high on treatment of heart failure and colorectal surgery, but middling or worse on most other metrics.
The hospital did get an A from the Leapfrog Group in early 2013, but it slipped to a D last year. Clearly, there are problems that go far beyond a computer hack.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
