WHEELING — Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Regional Hospital won’t have to pay “ransom” to counter a cyberattack on the hospitals’ computer system, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“We are not paying a ransom,” said Karin Janiszewski, director of marketing and public relations for OVMC and EORH. “It is not necessary because we have redundant security and Ransomware was only able to make it through our first line of security and they caught the attempted attack quickly.”

Officials were hopeful that emergency rooms at OVMC’s EMSTAR unit in Wheeling and at EORH in Martins Ferry could return to full operation soon.

Explaining the process to repair the hospitals’ computer system, she said, “Now, our IT crew is rebuilding the front of the software programs — the entry area — and until that is fully functional, we will stay on a yellow status in the ER.

“We do that because the software needed to accurately read radiology and CT scans is in the process of being rebuilt. That interface should be fully functional by the end of (Tuesday) and we can go off of diversion in the ERs,” she said.

Emergency squad patients were diverted to other area hospitals over the weekend because of the cyber-crime incident. The full diversion occurred after the OVMC-EORH computer system was attacked Friday night by Ransomware.

By Monday, remediation had progressed to the point that only a partial diversion of emergency room traffic to OVMC and EORH was necessary. The partial closure — a so-called “yellow diversion” — continued Tuesday morning.

At that time, Janiszewski said, “We are still on yellow diversion in the ERs. We are hoping to be fully operational by the end of (Tuesday).”

Daniel Dunmyer, CEO of OVMC, said yellow diversion means “the EMS can call in to the ER and we can let them know if it’s a case we can take.”

Dunmyer said confidentiality of patients’ personal information had not been compromised by the attack of Ransomware.

By definition, Ransomware is a type of malicious software that threatens to publish data or block access to data unless a ransom is paid.