Communications at Lurie Children's Hospital partially restored following cyberattack

CHICAGO - Communications are being restored at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago following a cybersecurity attack that caused a complete network outage late last month.

In a statement Wednesday, the children's hospital said email to outside addresses has been restored and their phone lines are opening back up after the cyberattack on Jan. 31.

"Email to external email addresses has been restored," the statement said." A majority of our phones have also been restored."

Lurie representatives said the hospital is still using its dedicated call center to communicate with patients and their families.

MyChart, the electronic portal that families primarily use to communicate with their health care providers, still remains offline as the hospital continues to work to fully restore communications, the hospital said in the statement.

Lurie Children's Chief Medical Officer Marcelo Malakooti confirmed on Feb. 8 that the hospital's network was accessed by a "known criminal threat actor." Malakooti said that based on evidence of suspicious activity, they acted swiftly to protect a significant amount of information.

The call center can be reached at (800) 543-7362, for non-urgent patient questions, information about scheduled appointments and prescription refill requests, a representative told the Sun-Times on Monday. The hotline operates 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday.

When the call center is closed, the main operator can be reached at (312) 227-4000, though the hospital noted it was receiving a high number of calls.