Parents face challenges amid Lurie Children's Hospital network outage
CHICAGO - Parents were scrambling for information on Friday as Lurie Children's Hospital was experiencing a network outage attributed to a cybersecurity matter.
The outage has impacted the entire network, including phones, email, and MyChart accounts.
Parents reported difficulties reaching the hospital, and that for appointments, doctors have resorted to the old-fashioned way of handwriting notes and prescriptions.
Some parents also claimed their children's procedures had been either canceled or delayed.
The hospital notified the public about the cybersecurity issue on Thursday and is collaborating with law enforcement to investigate.
Lurie Children's Hospital faces computer network outage due to cybersecurity alert
The Chicago area's largest children's hospital is currently grappling with a computer network outage, coinciding with a nationwide alert regarding cyber attacks targeting hospitals.
One concerned guardian, wishing to remain anonymous, expressed frustration.
"Everything is down. You can’t call, you can’t do anything today, at all, period," she said.
The woman was told that the network issue would be resolved by next week.
Additionally, Lurie Children's has established a dedicated call center to address any and all needs. The number is 800-543-7362. It's available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. The hospital said that due to high volumes, if you receive a busy signal, just call back.
For updates on the situation, individuals can visit Lurie's website at luriechildrens.org.
Lurie's latest update was posted around 6 p.m. on Friday — read below:
Lurie Children's is actively responding to a cybersecurity matter. We are taking this very seriously and have launched an investigation with the support of leading experts and are working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.
As part of our response to this matter, we have proactively taken network systems offline.
As Illinois' leading provider for pediatric care, our overarching priority is to continue providing safe, quality care to our patients and the communities we serve. Lurie Children's is open and providing care to patients with as limited disruption as possible.
We have established a dedicated call center to address our patient families' and community providers' needs. Please call 1.800.KIDS.DOC (1.800.543.7362), M-F 8 a.m.-8p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-12 p.m., with any questions or concerns including:
Non-urgent patient requests and care questions
Information regarding scheduled patient appointments
Patient prescription refill requests
Due to high volumes, if you receive a busy signal, please try calling us back.
We are very grateful to our workforce and care providers who are committed to preserving our charitable mission during this time. We recognize the concern and inconvenience the systems outage may cause our patient-families and community providers and are working diligently to resolve this matter as quickly and effectively as possible.