Maine’s largest healthcare network, MaineHealth, has issued an apology after an error led to hundreds of living patients receiving letters that misleadingly announced their deaths. On October 20, a technical issue resulted in 521 letters being sent through a third-party vendor’s system, each one suggesting the recipient had passed away.
“MaineHealth deeply regrets this mistake,” the organization stated. They added that the issue has been resolved, and they sent apologies to all affected patients. Officials reassured that no deaths were actually noted in medical records and patient care remained unaffected.
The glitch was restricted to an automated notification process at MaineHealth’s Portland headquarters, which manages Maine Medical Center along with eight other hospitals in Maine and New Hampshire. In light of recent updates to its digital records and messaging systems, MaineHealth is reviewing the automated tools responsible for generating these letters.
Automation failures are becoming more common across hospital networks nationwide, resulting in issues ranging from incorrect billing to misleading “death” alerts appearing online. A report from Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted that complexities associated with electronic medical records can lead to risks such as inaccurate drug orders or missed test results.
Patients who receive erroneous letters can reach out to MaineHealth’s patient relations department to confirm their living status and rectify their records. One woman expressed her shock and distress upon receiving such a letter, saying, “It was pretty upsetting to open. Why did they say I was dead? I was really shocked and upset.”
She further mentioned having recent tests and her doctor being part of MaineHealth, but noted she had never experienced serious health issues that would contribute to an assumption of death. MaineHealth has confirmed that no protected medical information was compromised in this incident.
