University of Mississippi Medical Center revenue fell roughly 20% below budget in February, the month a cyberattack struck the hospital system and led it to cancel all elective surgeries and appointments for nine days.
The medical center was about $34.2 million short of its expected $194.1 million in operating revenue in February, according to budget reports. But hospital leaders say they anticipate revenue will rebound as patient care charges logged on paper during the attack are input into the hospital’s computer system and as the medical center reschedules postponed surgeries.
“We really think that we won’t see the true catch-up picture, until maybe even, you know, March, April, the end of the fiscal year,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC’s vice chancellor for health affairs at an Institutions of Higher Learning committee meeting Wednesday. The state’s fiscal year ends June 30.
In February, UMMC closed clinics statewide and canceled scheduled appointments and surgeries after discovering a cyberattack on its IT systems, forcing the shutdown of computer systems that hold patients’ electronic health records.
UMMC is the state’s largest public medical system, operating seven hospitals and 35 clinics statewide, and it provides a significant level of care to low-income and uninsured patients regardless of their ability to pay.
For nine days, medical staff cared for patients using paper charts — some for the first time in their careers — and without access to Wi-Fi or phone lines. The hospital resumed normal operations on March 2.
Roughly 650 surgeries were delayed during the cyberattack, said Jennifer Sinclair, UMMC’s chief financial officer. She said canceled appointments and surgeries have been rescheduled, and their financial impact should appear in revenue figures in coming months.
Woodward said clinic and operating room hours have been extended to accommodate postponed appointments.
Attacks using ransomware, or malicious software that holds computer systems or data hostage in demand for a payment, can have severe financial consequences for hospitals beyond a ransom, said Dr. Christian Dameff, an associate professor and co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California San Diego.
“They require, afterwards, a lot of money to try to shore up defenses,” Dameff said. “These are types of things that can cause systemic issues or risks to financial solvency for some organizations.”
A 2020 cyberattack on the University of Vermont Medical Center resulted in the academic medical center losing access to its electronic medical record system for 28 days and cost the system about $65 million, according to Vermont Public. Like the attack on UMMC, it led to canceled health appointments and impeded residents’ access to specialized care.
Other UMMC expenses are on budget, and the hospital’s net income is about $8.6 million behind budget for the year, Sinclair said.
Sinclair said all patient care charges from the same time period as the cyberattack should be reflected in the electronic system by the end of March, which means next month’s financial statements will likely more accurately show the impact of the cyberattack.
“That will catch up in March and will get a better reflection of what impact really was,” Sinclair said.
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