3 Johns Hopkins hospitals’ emergency departments temporarily closed to EMS

Three hospitals within the Johns Hopkins Health System were under “Code Black” status Monday, meaning some emergency department operations were temporarily unavailable, according to the Maryland Emergency Department Advisory System.

On Monday afternoon, Howard County Medical Center in Columbia, Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., were operating under Code Black status, according to the statewide dashboard.

However, as of 5 p.m. Monday, only Sibley Memorial was still operating under the restricted status. The state defines Code Black as when a hospital’s “emergency department is effectively closed to EMS traffic due to unsafe conditions (e.g., utility failure, fire, other threat).”

The Code Black status was triggered by a temporary technology network issue, according to Kim Hoppe, a Hopkins spokesperson.

“We have restored full functionality. This was not a cyber-attack,” Hoppe said in a statement. The hospital system did not say how long emergency department functions were curtailed or explain the exact cause of the problem.

WUSA-TV first reported the status change Monday.

The Maryland Department of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Earlier this month, two hospitals in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties were hit by a cybersecurity attack. The attacks at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis and Doctors Community Medical Center in Lanham were confirmed by Luminis Health, the hospitals’ parent company.