N.J. hospital diverting patients days after cybersecurity issue
CentraState Medical Center was diverting patients from its emergency room on Tuesday, days after the Freehold hospital had halted new admissions due to a cybersecurity issue.
The details of the issue, which struck last Friday, remain unclear. A spokeswoman for the facility would say only that there were no new updates. It’s unclear if the cybersecurity problem has since been resolved.
A call operator for the emergency room said the facility was still having issues, but didn’t specify what they were. He said the emergency room was encouraging people to seek treatment elsewhere, but by law, the hospital couldn’t turn away patients.
CentraState is diverting patients because of patient volume, according to an online emergency room status tracker. The call operator confirmed the facility was experiencing a high volume of patients. COVID-19, the flu and other respiratory viruses continue to circulate across New Jersey and the state.
The Freehold hospital said it was halting new admissions Dec. 30 because it was “experiencing some technical problems related to an IT security issue,” which was being investigated.
The spokeswoman said last week that “Critical patient care has not been adversely affected, but as a precautionary measure we have diverted all new patients to other facilities for care.”
The FBI is aware of the issue, according to a report by New Jersey 101.5.
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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com.
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