DECATUR, Ga. — A computer network disruption has caused delays in paychecks for the roughly 350 employees of DeKalb Public Health.
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“We’re all feeling the pain,” said Bjay Wylde, the agency’s chief operating officer.
Paychecks were due to go out Wednesday, but he said it could be Friday before they arrive.
The problem started Sunday when work on the agency’s new tuberculosis unit on Winn Way caused the power to go out, he said. Staff arrived Monday morning to find the building relying on the backup generator. Wylde said the interruption in power led to a crash of the agency’s computer network.
“Since that time, we have been troubleshooting the issue, looking for a solution,” Wylde said. “We’re hoping to get something resolved within the next 12 to 48 hours.”
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With the computer network down, payroll and phones are out of service and many links on the agency’s website don’t work. Wylde said without the internet, clinics have had to rely on paper records.
“I do also want to stress that we are still open,” he said. “We’re still serving the public. You can still get death certificates, birth certificates here. We can still see patients.”
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A letter sent to all employees on Tuesday said in part: “We sincerely regret any inconvenience that may be caused by this situation.” The letter also said the outage was “not related to any federal budget impact.”
Wylde added that the disruption was not the result of a cyberattack.
As for when the problem will get fixed and the system restored, the letter said “This is a process that will take time.”
“The team, which includes outside IT consultants, has indicated that this will take approximately 48 hours,” it said.
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