Surgery postponed

Dornbirn city hospital affected by IT failures

Nothing works anymore - this is what the employees of the city of Dornbirn had to realize on Friday morning. They too had to deal with the faulty update of an IT protection program that had caused computer failures worldwide. This posed particular challenges for the staff at the municipal hospital.  

All operations planned for Friday at Dornbirn City Hospital were postponed as a precaution. Outpatient operations were handled analogously and emergencies were diverted to the regional hospitals via the emergency control center. Although the medical equipment was working, it was not possible to network and transmit X-ray images or laboratory results, for example. 

Meanwhile, the staff in the IT department at Dornbirn town hall had their hands full. An update had to be installed for every single PC. Around 100 computers were affected at the town hall and around 95 percent of the 700 PCs operated at the hospital.

Crisis management worked
In the afternoon, everyone involved could breathe a sigh of relief. The computers were up and running again. "Once again, the crisis management at both the city of Dornbirn and the municipal hospital worked very well and ensured that the critical infrastructure was not at risk despite the IT outages," summed up the city officials. 

Staff at the hospital are prepared for such situations thanks to professional documentation and regular drills. Processes can be adapted quickly and operations continue even in difficult situations.