SALISBURY, Md. - TidalHealth experienced a systemwide phone and internet outage Thursday morning following a reported power failure, affecting several services across the health system.
All systems have returned to normal operations as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, according to TidalHealth.
Officials say all facilities are expected to open on time Aug. 14 and patients should plan to attend scheduled appointments, unless contacted by their provider.
Just before 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 13, TidalHealth said on social media that a construction crew had struck a pipe, compromising the health system's phone and internet.
TidalHealth Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Cindy Lunsford said a water pipe at the construction site was damaged, sending water into an area housing critical infrastructure.
"We had a major outage of our infrastructure that affected our phones, affected our internet, our electronic medical records, and some of our power in the medical facility," Lunsford said.
Lunsford said the incident affected TidalHealth's main power supply room, which in turn affected electronic medical record systems across TidalHealth sites. Staff moved to downtime procedures, including paper records, while systems were unavailable.
TidalHealth Atlantic's phone service has since been restored, though TidalHealth Nanticoke and Peninsula Regional are still unable to receive incoming calls.
As of 2:15 p.m., Urgent Care locations had reopened and there was no longer a trauma divert at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional, according to officials. TidalHealth said no patients had to be diverted.
"There were no incidents related to patient safety," Lunsford said. "We do downtime drills. And so folks knew exactly what to do when we lose power, when we lose the infrastructure."
All TidalHealth outpatient appointments were canceled for the remainder of the day. Lunsford said some surgical cases were also canceled, while Chief Medical Officer Dr. Trudy Hall said emergency surgical cases continued and primarily elective cases were delayed or postponed.
TidalHealth Peninsula Regional was temporarily on divert for trauma patients only. TidalHealth Atlantic and TidalHealth Nanticoke are no longer on divert, although TidalHealth Nanticoke was listed as on divert for STEMI and cardiac catheterization procedures. As of 11:15 a.m., officials said TidalHealth Nanticoke was no longer on divert.
Hall said the health system continued caring for patients by relying on backup procedures, including using paper records and having staff physically retrieve certain lab results.
"We're able to do it, but just that it may take a little bit more manpower to be able to get the information," Hall said.
Just before 11:30 a.m., TidalHealth announced Wicomico County was moving its mobile command center to TidalHealth Peninsula Regional to help provide better communication with EMS.
By Thursday afternoon, Lunsford said service had been restored in some areas of the hospital but not others. She said internet service had returned but remained sporadic in some areas.
TidalHealth officials said they expect services to be open Friday, but patients with appointments are encouraged to contact their provider or doctor's office to confirm. Patients whose appointments or procedures were canceled Thursday should also contact their provider to reschedule.
Hall also stressed that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack.
"This was not a cyber attack," Hall said. "It was a construction episode."
TidalHealth thanked the community for its patience and support throughout the response in a social media statement Friday:
"Thank you to our patients, visitors and community for your patience and understanding as our teams worked to restore services," the company posted.
"And a special thank you to our TidalHealth team members who worked tirelessly behind the scenes and across our facilities to keep patient care moving and get us back to normal operations."
