Copyright ABC News
A large health care system in Maine said it "sincerely regrets" an error that mistakenly sent condolence letters to patients about their deaths. MaineHealth, a nonprofit system that includes hospitals, health care facilities and clinics in Maine and New Hampshire, sent letters to 531 patients, expressing condolences that included information on how next of kin could resolve their estates. A spokesperson for the health system told ABC News that an error in its computer system for generating estate vendor letters led to the mistake. The spokesperson added that the patients were never listed as deceased in their medical records. The problem has since been resolved and apology letters were sent to all patients affected by the error, according to the spokesperson. "MaineHealth sincerely regrets this error and has sent apology letters to all patients who have been affected," the spokesperson said. "At no time were these patients listed as deceased in their medical records and the issue has been fully resolved." This is not the first time a major heath system has mistakenly informed patients that they were deceased. In January 2021, Saint Alphonsus, an Idaho health system, said it suffered a cyberattack. Patients received letters stating they were dead and that personal information may have been stolen, according to local ABC News affiliate KIVI-TV. In a statement, Saint Alphonsus said "a mail merge issue" generated the incorrect letters and apologized "for the confusion and frustration" caused by the incident. "The purpose of the original important notification was to inform impacted patients of an email security incident, provide a call center number to call for information, and to advise patients about credit monitoring services which would be available, if desired," the statement read, according to KIVI-TV. "The mail merge issue did not occur at Saint Alphonsus and all the impacted patients' status is properly identified in our electronic medical records system."
