The Campbell County Commissioners adopted a resolution declaring a local area disaster following a ransomware attack at Campbell County Health (CCH) earlier this morning. All CCH computer systems have been affected, which impacts the organization’s ability to provide patient care and the hospital is operating in full divert status. Efforts are underway to restore the affected systems.
“All computers in the hospital are shut off at this point,” said Steve Crichton, CCH vice president of facilities. “We are unable to admit additional patients to the hospital. The ER and walk-in clinics are making decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
While the hospital is in a full divert status and is not accepting any EMS transports to the Emergency Room (ER) at this point, individuals can still visit the ER and walk-in clinics, and will be triaged and assessed before transport decisions are made, if needed.
CCH has been working with FEMA, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Governor’s Office, along with cybersecurity authorities and insurance representatives, according to Crichton.
The purpose of the resolution is to protect the hospital’s federal reimbursement funds when patients are diverted to a facility of lesser capabilities, according to Campbell County Emergency Management Coordinator David King.
The “technological attack,” as referred to in Resolution 2020, is forcing patient diversion to primarily Sheridan Memorial Hospital as Wyoming Medical Center in Casper and Rapid City Regional both are nearly at capacity.
At this point, the incident command center will be staffed until Monday morning, said Crichton.
