Important notice for patients following the nursing strike

University of Chicago Medicine nurses represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) have returned to work following a strike.

If you or a family member have an appointment or are visiting hospital patients, please allow extra time when arriving as we resume normal hospital operations. Thank you for your patience.

About 2,200 NNOC/NNU-represented nurses went on strike at 7 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20. The nurses returned to work beginning at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

UCMC remained open 24/7 and continued to serve patients during the strike. We went on full bypass ahead of the strike, limited transfers from community hospitals, rescheduled some elective procedures and transferred some patients on a case-by-case basis. Outpatient clinics continued to operate normally.

Units that temporarily closed during the strike will continue reopening as our patient census continues to climb. Some patients who were transferred to other hospitals will return, although those decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis. Most of the sickest patients being treated at UCMC when the strike began remained at the medical center.

Hundreds of highly skilled replacement nurses were hired to replace the NNOC/NNU nurses for the duration of the strike, and they worked alongside the physicians and other clinicians to provide safe and effective care.