Drammen hospital forced into emergency mode due to IT failure

Drammen hospital in Norway was placed on red alert Monday evening after a network outage disrupted critical systems, Drammens Tidende reports.

According to Dag Strøm, press officer for Vestre Viken Health Trust, the failure stemmed from technical issues at Sykehuspartner, the hospital’s IT provider. The outage cut off access to patient record systems and other essential tools, forcing staff to rely on manual procedures.

Strøm stated that the disruption primarily affected employees, with no immediate reports of impact on patients. Later in the evening, Sykehuspartner’s communications director Cindy Empaynado confirmed to Drammens Tidende that the network had been restored and was stabilising. The hospital subsequently downgraded its alert level from red to yellow.