SPRING VALLEY, Ill. (WTVO) — An Illinois hospital will close its doors due this week in part due to a devastating cyberattack.
Spring Valley’s St. Margaret’s Health is the first hospital to link criminal hackers to its closure, according to NBC News. Linda Burt, vice president of quality and community services at the hospital, said that it will shutter its doors on Friday.
“Due to a number of factors, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the cyberattack on the computer system of St. Margaret’s Health, and a shortage of staff, it has become impossible to sustain our ministry,” said Suzanne Stahl, chair of SMP Health, the hospital’s parent company.
Allan Liska, a ransomware analyst at Recorded Future, said that ransomware attacks have affect health care in the country since 2016. Hackers will cripple an organization’s computers remotely and demand payment.
When this happens, the hospitals must find a way to suddenly work without computers, reverting to pen and paper for prescriptions and patient charts. However, this technology has become integral to modern health care, and reverting back to old methods have lead to patients receiving delayed operations and medicine dosages.
Data showed that there have been at least 300 attacks per year on health care facilities since 2020, and 2023 is no different.
Spring Valley Mayor Melanie Malooley-Thompson said that residents will have to travel around half an hour for services now due to the hospital’s closure.
“The hospital closure will have a profound impact on the well-being of our community. This will be a challenging transition for many residents who rely on our hospital for quality healthcare,” Malooley-Thompson said.
A study by the Ponemon Insitute showed that cyber-attacks have led to an increase in mortality rates.
