MaineHealth officials have apologized to more than 500 people to whom it sent letters of condolences on October 20 after a computer error generated the letters despite no death notices having been filed. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
Officials for Maine’s largest healthcare provider have apologized for sending their condolences to hundreds of people who are still alive.
A computer system error caused MaineHealth officials to send letters of condolence to more than 500 living people to inform their next of kin of their reported deaths. MaineHealth, the state’s largest provider of medical services, sent the false condolence letters to 531 people on Oct. 20, WCSH reported.
“MaineHealth sincerely regrets this error,” MaineHealth officials said in a prepared statement.
The cause of the mistake was a computer program that generates estate-vendor letters, ABC News reported.
There were no medical records that listed the individuals as dead, and the computer program has since been corrected to prevent future occurrences.
MaineHealth is a non-profit healthcare provider that operates a Level 1 trauma center and eight other hospitals, according to NBC News.
It employs more than 20,000 people in Maine and New Hampshire.
