UChicago Medicine leaders promised to take action to make their Hyde Park medical center safer after a large fight broke out in the emergency department in the aftermath of a deadly shooting last weekend.
Shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, a crowd gathered near the medical center on Maryland Avenue as shooting victims were taken inside for treatment, UChicago Medicine Vice Presidents Krista Curell and Judd Johnson said in an letter emailed to staff Tuesday.
Fifteen to 20 people then went inside the emergency department, into patient treatment areas, the letter said. A fight started, prompting a lockdown. Three emergency department employees and one of the people who entered the building were injured, the letter said.
University of Chicago police officers removed the group two minutes after they entered the clinical space, the hospital leaders said. Officers found no weapons as they searched the hospital and the people who entered it, the letter continued. Patient care continued as the fight broke out nearby, it added.
The fight “has understandably concerned many employees,” the letter said. Hospital leaders met with front line staff Monday and identified ways to improve safety, the letter said. The hospital implemented a new weapon detection system last week, it added.
More police and security workers will be present in the emergency department this week, according to the letter.
“Be assured, patient and employee safety is our organization’s top priority, and we are working to thoroughly investigate the situation,” the hospital leaders wrote.
The shooting that led to the ER melee occurred in Washington Park in the 5700 block of South Payne Drive around 8:15 p.m., where responding officers found four people shot, according to Chicago police.
A 52-year-old man had been shot in the face and chest and was in critical condition. A 16-year-old boy shot in the leg and was in fair condition. An 18-year-old man was shot in the leg and torso and listed in fair condition.
Another 18-year-old man who was shot in the thigh and buttocks later died. The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the man as Tyshawn Javoitay Johnson.