SAY WHAT!? MAINEHEALTH MISTAKENLY SENT OUT DEATH NOTICES FOR 531 PEOPLE
I’ve always been somewhat skeptical when it comes to virtual portals for healthcare. And there are all sorts, from accounts you can access on a web page or apps, and apps that can aggregate all of your medical history (tests, scans, treatments, prescriptions, procedures, etc). But that’s just the tip of the Excalibur iceberg when you include government services like Medicare, the VA, Social Security and the like. And I can only imagine how complicated that can be for older folks. But speaking of older folks, let’s talk about how the MaineHealth computer system sent death notices (as condolences) to the next of kin of 531 people who were still alive.
MAINEHEALTH APOLOGIZED PROFUSELY FOR TRAUMATIZING NEXT OF KIN 531 TIMES
Now, I’m pretty sure every single one of those 531 people were pretty sure they were still alive. But it has to have been a bit jarring for their next of kin to get a message essentially saying, “we’re sorry for your loss.” You know, the death that hasn’t happened yet? If I lived in Maine and got something like that for one of my parents, I’d kind of freak out with what would end with emotional rage. Obviously, it was a computer error that prompted MaineHealth officials to send out all those death notices to the next of kin for five hundred and thirty one people who were still alive. But yes, MaineHealth officials have already apologized.
Related:
MAINEHEALTH SAYS THE COMPUTER GLITCH IS FIXED, BUT THERE DON’T SEEM TO BE ANY SAFEGUARDS
The notices went out on October 20th, and were from a computer program that generates estate-vendor letters. And here I thought it couldn’t get even more awkward? Because vendors can mean a whole lot of different kind of service providers that come into play when someone dies. MaineHealth says the program has already been fixed. But considering how none of these 532 people had a death certificate (ahem, to their name) or any medical records saying they were deceased leads me to (safely) assume that there were not, and are still not, any safeguards to prevent this from happening again.
MaineHealth is a non-profit healthcare provider that runs a Level 1 trauma center as well as 8 regular hospitals, employing 20,000 people.
