Cyberattack continues to disrupt some hospital operations in Brockton

Some hospital operations remain disrupted after a cyberattack hit a Brockton hospital earlier this week.

The Monday cyberattack took down digital systems at Signature Healthcare and Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, forcing the facilities to move into downtime procedures.

Inpatient and walk-in emergency services remained open, and surgeries and endoscopy procedures were continuing as scheduled. Chemotherapy treatments resumed late Tuesday, the facility said.

"We are working closely with third-party cybersecurity experts, as well as state and federal officials, to determine the source of this incident," said Kim Walsh, RN, MSN, Signature Healthcare chief operating officer. "Our care teams continue to provide high-quality care using established downtime procedures. We remain committed to serving our community throughout this process."

Operational updates as of 5 p.m. Tuesday:

Signature Healthcare said it implemented measures to ensure high-quality patient care and safety. Staff at the hospital have been forced to switch to a paper and pencil workflow, which may cause delays for patients.

"Patients are often sent to other facilities in the surrounding area, which stresses those facilities as well. And as they're managing the paper, pencil, the shutting down of certain networks, they're going to do a lot more manually than they're used to. That makes them not as efficient, it means it takes longer. And if they haven't necessarily been trained in one particular area right, it's going to take a lot longer to really be able to help patients," said Cynthia Kaiser, the senior vice president of the cybersecurity firm Halcyon.

Rep. Stephen Lynch said sending affected patients to different facilities is difficult to do in a state that has seen several hospital closures.

"Unfortunately, because of all these closures, we just have a situation where we don't have enough beds," he said.