Hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are staying vigilant following a social media report about a potential terror threat against health care facilities.
The American Hospital Association and the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center issued a joint bulletin Thursday about the post, which reports a possible coordinated threat against hospitals in mid-tier American cities. The groups also said the bulletin was shared “out of an abundance of caution,” even as the information could not be verified at this time.
“However, this widely viewed post may encourage others to engage in malicious activity directed toward the health sector, so threats of this nature should be taken seriously,” the bulletin said.
Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, told The Dallas Morning News Friday that the group takes all threats seriously and that its members maintain great communications with local law enforcement. The council represents 90 hospitals in the region.
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“We have good security at our hospitals, but everyone here in the North Texas area is being vigilant just in case,” he said.
Love added that health care systems in the U.S. have seen cyber attacks, but an unsubstantiated threat of this nature was “not something we deal with every day.”
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“We have normal security. We have practices in place. We want our patients, families and our staff to be safe,” he said.
Dallas-Fort Worth hospitals stay vigilant amid potential terror threat
