Even while it has been difficult for staff to deal with the situation and for people to make appointments, there is some relief in sight.
The hospital has resorted to work with full force, and is no longer diverting their ambulances back from the emergency rooms. According to the hospital spokesperson Briam Ziel, they are now “working directly with EMS on a case-by-case basis to determine which patients are appropriate to bring to the hospital.”
“Our emergency room remains open and our team is ready to treat community members who come to us directly for care,” he added. Ziel also mentioned that the hospital is now accepting patient transfers from fellow hospitals to their ICU, pediatric and intermediate care floors./ While the Mountain View Redicare clinic is still temporarily shut, it is set to reopen, “in the coming days,” notes Ziel.
Moreover, the Teton Cancer Institute has ‘restored certain key operations,’ the hospital did not yet clarity what those were particularly.
“We are pleased to share that, due to the hard work of our team, Teton Cancer Institute was able to restore certain operations to continue caring for more of their patients each day[…]We continue providing care, including radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatments, to patients,” Ziel said.
When will the Situations be Normal?
The hospital did not yet confirm as to when their operations and works with its partners be back to normal.
Since the cyberattack disrupted the hospital's routine activities, patients like Monica Layton and her husband have experienced difficulties. At Mountain View's Pain & Spine Specialists, Layton's husband visits a pain specialist.
Apparently the patient was scheduled for his monthly re-checkups. However following the cyberattack, the hospital’s text reminders were out of services, because of which Layton did not receive a reminder for the check-ups that were followed. Once they realized what transpired, they immediately contacted the hospital to get the scheduled, but were unable to.
Although, the hospital could not provide a timelines as to when the issue will be resolved, Ziel cofirmed that, “we are committed to keeping our community updated. We are working as quickly and safely as possible to bring all our departments across our facilities to full operational capacity.”
The hospital has also sought help from the FBI on the matter. While the FBI did acknowledge the incident, they decline any further comment.
When asked about a follow-up, Ziel said, “the investigation is ongoing and in its early stages. To ensure the integrity of the investigation, we are not able to provide additional details at this time.”