Nothing worse than finding out you’re no longer around when you check your mail. MaineHealth, Maine’s largest health care provider, sent letters to 531 patients on October 20th that wrongly told them they were dead. The letters expressed condolences and included information for their next of kin about how to resolve their estates. A computer system error in the software used to generate estate vendor letters caused the mistake. The patients were never listed as deceased in their medical records, and the error did not affect their care or status in the health system.
One woman from Sanford told local media she was pretty upset to receive the letter, saying she hasn’t even been in the hospital for anything serious that she could have died from. When she called Patient Financial Services to report she was still alive, the person on the phone said he was aware of the issue and was glad to hear she was alive and well. MaineHealth has since fixed the problem and sent apology letters to all affected patients, who were obviously alive since they opened their own mail.
Source: ABC News
