Northwestern Medicine is instructing patients to avoid travel to downtown Chicago and suspending some patient appointments and procedures after hundreds of people looted stores near the hospital campus overnight and early Monday morning.
Northwestern issued a statement Monday morning to patients that their appointment or procedure had been postponed "due to civil unrest throughout the city," and a Northwestern representative will be in contact to reschedule.
The looting took place in businesses on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, which is also home to the Northwestern medical campus. Chicago police officers exchanged gunfire with at least one individual, nine officers were injured and more than 100 people were arrested, according to NPR.
Law enforcement officials say the violence is linked to social media calls for looting after police shot and injured a male suspect who had fired a weapon at officers on the city's South Side Sunday afternoon, according to NPR.
Becker's has reached out to Northwestern and will update this report if more information is made available.
[Update, 2:20 p.m. CST] A Northwestern spokesperson provided the following statement:
"Northwestern Memorial Hospital and our Chicago campus continues to serve patients. Due to the civil unrest that occurred overnight and this morning throughout Chicago, we had to reschedule or delay some patient appointments out of precaution for our patients and employees. In addition, we also offered telehealth visits for those patients who prefer or where our offices need to do so. For any future updates, we ask that patients please visit NM.org."