Lurie Children’s Hospital Data Breach Investigation

The Lyon Firm is investigating data breach claims linked to the recent cyberattack that shut down IT systems at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Contact our data breach lawyers following a data security incident that may have compromised your personal information.

Medical identity theft has become a major problem in recent years, and victims remain at risk of fraud for years after any incident. Our attorneys believe that any healthcare entity that collects and stores your data has a duty to properly protect it with a reasonably secure IT network. Should they fail, any negligent party may be held accountable.

What Happened at Lurie Children’s Hospital?

There are still several unknowns, but we do know the Chicago hospital was forced to take IT systems offline after a cyberattack disrupted normal operations and delaying medical care.

Lurie Children’s, a Chicago-based pediatric acute care hospital, runs a facility with 360 beds, 1,665 physicians and 4,000 medical staff and employees. The hospital provided care for over 200,000 children annually.

The hospital announced on its website and social media platforms that it responded to a “cybersecurity” incident, which resulted in network systems being taken offline to minimize the damage.

The medical center’s phone, internet and MyChart patient portal went down on January 31st. Hospital staff posted on social media about using paper charts, a typical “downtime” procedure, while patients and their family expressed frustration about appointments and procedures. Ultrasound and CT scan results were reportedly unavailable, and prescriptions were given in paper form.

Also, the hospital admitted confusion about scheduling and reverted to a first-come, first-served approach, prioritizing emergency cases. At the moment, no specific ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Lurie Children’s Hospital released a statement on their website that read: “Lurie Children’s is actively responding to a cybersecurity matter. We are taking this very seriously, are investigating 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 taken network systems offline.”

The hospital has not yet disclosed the original cause of the incident, though many similar cyberattacks are the direct result of a ransomware attack.