BEAVER -- A hospital and health care system based in western Pennsylvania is dealing with a cyberattack that's being described as "widespread."

A spokeswoman for Heritage Valley Health System says the attack Tuesday is affecting they entire health system and they are working to ensure safe patient care continues.

Heritage Valley is a $480 million network that provides care for residents of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties, in Pennsylvania; parts of eastern Ohio; and the panhandle of West Virginia.

It wasn't immediately clear if it was related to the outbreak of malicious data-scrambling software that appears to be causing mass disruption across Europe Tuesday.

Also affected is New Jersey-based Merck, the second-largest drugmaker in the United States with extensive operations in the Philadelphia area.

Merck confirmed its computer network was "compromised" as part of the global attack.