Lurie Children's Hospital network knocked out due to 'cybersecurity matter'

UPDATED FEB. 4

A systemwide network outage due to a “cybersecurity matter” at Lurie Children’s Hospital has disrupted all communication and patient care for the better park of a full week now.

Lurie has established a dedicated call center to address patient families' and community providers' needs, the hospital said in an update posted the morning of Feb. 4. 

The call center number is (800) 543-7362.

The call center is available Sunday 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It is meant for concerns such as non-urgent patient requests and care questions, information on scheduled patient appointments and patient prescription refill requests, the update said. It also said the children's hospital is open, continues to take new patients and that anyone with a scheduled appointment should show up to that appointment.

Related: Healthcare data breaches hit new highs in 2023

The Streeterville hospital first reported the outage the morning of Jan. 31. The outage is affecting phone, email, internet and electronic health record systems, according to Bardele.

Bardele declined to comment on whether appointments, procedures and surgeries had to be canceled or rescheduled as part of the outage.

Bardele said Lurie’s information management team is working “nonstop” to resolve the problem as quickly and effectively as possible. In the meantime, Lurie has been in communication with patients, staff and other providers to provide guidance.

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In a statement on its website, Lurie advises patients to call 911 or visit their nearest hospital in an emergency.

“Providing our people with the support they need to continue providing safe and effective care for our patients remains our top priority,” Bardele said.

This story first appeared in Crain's Chicago Business.