The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is responding to a ransomware incident that has significantly disrupted operations across its statewide network. While hospitals and emergency rooms remain open, all clinics and elective procedures have been suspended as the organization works through the impact of the attack.
UMMC confirmed that the incident triggered its emergency operations plan and led to the shutdown of key IT systems, including access to its electronic medical records platform. As a result, outpatient clinics, imaging appointments, and non-urgent surgeries across Mississippi were cancelled and are expected to be rescheduled once systems are restored.
Hospital leadership emphasized that patient care in emergency departments and inpatient settings is continuing through established downtime procedures. “We are still caring for patients who need us most,” said UMMC Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs LouAnn Woodward, noting that the duration of the disruption remains uncertain.
Federal authorities are now involved. The FBI has opened an investigation and is coordinating with local and national resources to support the response. According to the agency, the attackers have already made contact, and the situation is being actively assessed alongside cybersecurity specialists.
UMMC’s main campus in Jackson includes four hospitals—University Hospital, Children’s of Mississippi, Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants, and Conerly Critical Care Hospital—representing more than 800 patient beds. The scale of the organization underscores how quickly a cyber incident can ripple across clinical operations when core systems are unavailable.
Public-facing systems were also affected. UMMC’s website went offline, and callers to the main switchboard were met with recorded messages explaining that call transfers were unavailable due to the cyberattack.
This incident is the latest reminder of how exposed healthcare organizations remain to ransomware. When electronic records and communication systems go down, even well-prepared institutions are forced to rely on manual processes, delaying care and straining staff. As attacks against hospitals continue to increase, events like this reinforce the importance of resilient infrastructure, tested downtime plans, and security controls designed to assume systems will eventually fail—and recover safely when they do.
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