PENSACOLA, Fla. — Northwest Florida’s only federally qualified health center has been struck by a cybersecurity attack.
Community Health Northwest Florida’s 17 sites spanning across Escambia and Santa Rosa county were forced to close its doors this week.
All of its systems have been taken offline as a precaution. Phone, email and internet systems are down as well, causing some appointments to be canceled during the interim.
“So, we were made aware earlier this week that we experienced a cyberattack,” said Chandra Smiley, Community Health Northwest Florida CEO.
The cyberattack against Community Health started Tuesday afternoon. Clinics were closed Wednesday for Christmas, and closed Thursday because of the attack.
“This week, during the holidays we have shut down all of our systems to ensure that the integrity of our patient information is protected,” said Smiley. “We have forensic engineers coming in to really do a full on assessment of where we are and what our next steps need to be.”
All of its systems have been taken off line as a precaution, including internet, email and phones. Dental, X-ray, pharmaceutical and mammography services are all shut down.
“We’ve been calling our patients, those particularly in our dental clinic,” Smiley said. “We’ve been able to reach out, notify them that our clinic is closed right now, and that we will reach out and reschedule their appointments at a later date.”
Patients with primary care and pediatric appointments will not be rescheduled. However, clinics may be operating slower than usual without access to certain technologies.
At this time, Smiley says it appears none of the 55,000 patient records have been breached during the attack.
There is no timeline yet on a resolution.
Check back for updates.