The University of Mississippi Medical Center closed all its statewide clinics and canceled many appointments Thursday and Friday after a cybersecurity attack shut down all its computer systems, an incident officials expect to last multiple days. 

The state’s only academic medical center said in a Facebook post that many of its IT systems are down after the attack. That includes the electronic medical record system, which stores patient medical history, billing, test results, appointment booking and chart documentation. 

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of the medical center, said at a press conference Thursday morning that all UMMC’s locations were impacted. She said the hospital was continuing to provide urgent, time-sensitive services using protocols that can function without electronic medical records, like paper charts. Emergency services will also continue to be available.

She said UMMC was trying to determine what would happen to patients’ personal information stored in the hospital’s computer systems, but the hospital had taken down the systems to prevent potential privacy breaches. 

“We are working to mitigate all the risks that we know of,” she said.

In addition to suspending its clinic operations Thursday and Friday, the hospital system canceled all elective procedures, except for those at the Jackson Medical Mall’s dialysis clinic.

When asked about what impact the attack would have on the UMMC emergency service communication system, Dr. Alan Jones, vice chancellor for health affairs at UMMC, said that system could operate independently of the regular hospital operations and should be capable of functioning during the attack. 

He said the university was working to set up a phone line for patients to get more information about rescheduled or upcoming appointments, in addition to creating an operational plan for providing other medical services.

The attack has had repercussions beyond the medical center. County health departments rely on UMMC’s electronic medical record system for their clinical services, and Mississippi State Department of Health spokesperson Greg Flynn said providers at the departments are now using paper charts. He said all local health department services remain open. 

More than 10,000 employees work across UMMC, making the institution one of the state’s largest employers, according to the university. Over 3,000 students are enrolled in the medical center, which has an annual budget of roughly $2 billion. UMMC facilities include seven hospitals and 35 clinics statewide. 

In addition to the main campus in Jackson, UMMC has sites in Ridgeland, Holmes County and Grenada County.

UMMC runs the state’s only Level 1 trauma center, programs that are best equipped to respond to severe medical emergencies. Woodward said the hospital is continuing to serve Level 1 patients using manual procedures.

The cyberattack happened Thursday morning, Woodward said, and the attackers were in contact with the medical system afterward. She declined to answer what the attackers have said or asked for, but she said the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were aware of the hack. 

Woodward did not answer questions about how long UMMC and federal agencies expected the cyberattack to last or how long it would take to restore normal operations once the medical center regained control of its computer services. Jones said UMMC has information stored on both local and cloud-based servers, and the medical center believes the attack was just on the local servers. 

The hospital system’s websites were down Thursday, including a site that shows which medical services are diverting patients to other facilities. UMMC in-person classes will continue as scheduled, according to Woodward. 

Update, 2/19/2026: This story has been updated to reflect that UMMC will again cancel many appointments and close clinics Friday.

Update, 2/19/2026: This story has been updated to show that UMMC officials say the hospital was contacted after the cyberattack, and that the hospital has been in touch with investigators.