TMH addresses employee PTO concerns, says cyber incident ‘presented challenges’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A week after announcing all systems were back online, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare is still facing questions about certain employee policies during the two weeks the hospital found itself paralyzed by a cyber incident.

After repeated questioning by WCTV, a TMH spokesperson shared a statement Wednesday afternoon addressing the PTO situation.

“[TMH] takes our commitment to our colleagues seriously, and we understand the downtime presented challenges,” the statement read.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) takes our commitment to our colleagues seriously, and we understand the downtime presented challenges. Through it all, our focus was on providing excellent patient care while restoring our computer systems as securely and quickly as possible to allow our organization and colleagues to return to standard operations, which occurred Feb. 15. We want to assure you that our colleagues were provided opportunities to work in other areas of the organization during this downtime to offset and/or mitigate any lost time. As we move forward, we welcome our colleagues’ feedback. Our leaders and Human Resources Department are available to assist any colleague who may have questions or concerns, and we encourage colleagues to reach out to them directly.

This comes after WCTV shared the concerns of a remote TMH employee, frustrated by a policy that forced remote workers to use paid time off while the systems were offline.

Since that story ran, other employees, who were not remote, reached out to Eyewitness News with similar concerns.

As the above statement indicates, employees were invited to call a labor pool hotline to seek open jobs during the two week stretch, but that option was not available for remote workers who live out of state.

Following last week’s announcement that the cyber incident had been resolved, WCTV posed a number of questions about the nature of the incident and if the hospital will feel any lasting impacts.

A spokesperson declined to comment and provided the statement below.

“We understand that there are many questions about this event. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, which is ongoing, we are unable to share additional details at this time,”

WCTV also received a number of messages commending TMH employees for their work, providing quality care during a trying time.

The incident diverted a vast majority of EMS calls away from TMH and to HCA Florida Hospital.

In a statement to WCTV Tuesday, a HCA spokesperson confirmed the hospital saw a surge in patients while TMH was handicapped.

According to data shared with WCTV, HCA cared for more than 600 additional patients over the two week period. The hospital reached a record high census of 118%, caring for 338 patients at once, compared to the normal 200-220.

Copyright 2023 WCTV. All rights reserved.