Major NJ hospital system back to normal operations after CrowdStrike software meltdown

One of New Jersey's largest hospital systems was back online late Friday, a day after a global software snafu caused some of its computer systems to crash canceling elective surgeries and other procedures.

The 12 hospitals and other facilities of RWJBarnabas Health had returned to "normal operations" by 9 p.m. Friday, said Robert Cavanaugh, a spokesman.

The network's tech workers and emergency management team's "tireless efforts to resolve issues quickly and efficiently were critical in maintaining patient safety during a time of uncertainty," Cavanaugh said in a statment.

"While we continue to work through technical issues, normal operations have resumed across the system," he said.

RWJBarnabas was one of the hardest-hit hospital networks in New Jersey by a massive software outage that began Thursday night when an update by security company CrowdStrike shut down Microsoft operating systems worldwide. The shutdown affected businesses and governments from Singapore to South Africa.

Story continues below gallery

By Friday morning, some clinical and patient computer systems at RWJBarnabas hospitals were not working correctly, prompting the postponement of some procedures. It also disrupted the telephone systems at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch.

Many other hospital systems across New Jersey were not impacted as greatly and provided normal services on Friday.

"While some N.J. hospitals have experienced disruptions in certain external systems such as laboratory and insurance authorizations, most of these interruptions are not directly related to patient care," said Kerry McKean, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Hospitals Association.