Samaritan Medical Center Restores Hospital Electronic Medical Records System Following Malware Attack

Published on: August 19, 2020

Watertown, NY – Samaritan Medical Center has restored its primary hospital Electronic Medical Records (EMR) application, accounting, and payroll systems.

The restoration of the hospital EMR will enable hospital staff to resume regular processes for electronic patient registration, hospital scheduling, as well as patient records utilization.

Hospital patient records recorded manually while the hospital operated on down-time procedures will be inputted into the EMR to ensure seamless delivery of care.

This latest development follows Samaritan’s successful restoration last week of various applications. Samaritan’s internal IT team continues to work around the clock with third-party experts to bring the entire computer system back online, prioritizing applications related to patient care. Given the size of the network, this process will take time to ensure a safe and thorough restoration. The successful reinstatement of the primary EMR application marks significant progress.

Samaritan Medical Center takes the privacy and security of its patients’ information very seriously and continues to investigate this incident. At this time, there is no evidence that patient or employee records were accessed or acquired.

Please note, Samaritan’s website, telephone and fax lines are all working. Patient communication remains active and the impact to patient care remains minimal.