Healthcare system apologizes after over 500 living patients told they were dead via mail: 'Pretty upsetting'

Maine’s biggest healthcare network is apologizing after hundreds of living patients received letters telling them they were dead.

MaineHealth said a computer malfunction Oct. 20 caused 521 letters to go out through a third-party vendor system, each addressed to a patient and written as if the recipient had died.

“MaineHealth sincerely regrets this error,” the organization said in a statement. “We have since resolved the issue and sent apology letters to every affected patient.”

Officials stressed that no one was marked deceased in their medical records and that patient care wasn’t affected. 

The glitch was confined to an automated estate-notification process based at MaineHealth’s Portland headquarters, which oversees Maine Medical Center and eight other hospitals across Maine and New Hampshire.

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MaineHealth released a statement apologizing for the false death letters sent to over 500 patients last month. (Google Maps)

MaineHealth, which employs more than 20,000 people, recently updated its digital record and messaging systems and is now reviewing the automation tool that produced the letters.

Automation mishaps have plagued hospital networks nationwide, from billing statements sent to the wrong families to “deceased” alerts popping up in online patient portals. 

According to a 2022 Pew Charitable Trusts report, electronic health records complexity and usability problems can lead to wrong drug orders, missed test results or other patient-safety risks.

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Patients were reportedly sent letters from MaineHealth who claim that at no time they were listed as deceased. (iStock)

Patients who received the erroneous letters can contact MaineHealth’s patient relations department to confirm their status — alive and well — and ensure their records remain accurate.

“It was pretty upsetting to open that,” one woman told WGME. “Why would they say I was dead? So it was really shocking and upsetting.”

Over 500 patients of MaineHealth reportedly received letters informing them of their own death. (iStock)

“I mean, I’ve had some tests done, and my doctor is part of MaineHealth,” the woman said. “But I haven’t even been in the hospital for anything serious that I could have died from. So I don’t even know where they got that information.”

No protected health information was exposed, the hospital said.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to MaineHealth for additional comment.