LEWISTON — Computer systems for St. Mary’s Health System and Central Maine Healthcare are back online. The announcements came Monday after both organizations reported “cyber issues” about a month ago.
The two hospitals’ computer systems went down nearly simultaneously — St. Mary’s on May 26 and Central Maine June 1 — and they appear to have been fully restored around the same time as well.
According to a public statement Monday by spokesperson Karen Sullivan, all hospitals owned by Covenant Health Inc., including St. Mary’s, St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor and St. Andre Health Center in Biddeford, have had their computer services restored.
“We are happy to report that following the cybersecurity incident, Covenant Health hospitals and provider practices are fully operational and currently accepting appointments across all services,” she said. “Phone lines and outside communications with pharmacies and insurance carriers are running normally.”
Central Maine posted an update on its website Monday, stating “CMH hospitals and provider practices are back online.”
St. Mary’s MyChart portal is operational again, allowing patients to schedule appointments, message providers and request prescription refills, Sullivan said.
The health system’s services have been operational through most of the outage, Sullivan previously said, and patients started reporting on social media a couple of weeks ago that much of its operations seemed to be back to normal.
Initially, many St. Mary’s and Central Maine patients reported difficulties reaching providers, accessing medical records, refilling prescriptions and getting certain imaging and testing done because of the computer outage.
Neither Covenant officials nor Central Maine officials have gone into detail about what exactly happened to their systems.
Covenant has referred to what happened to its systems as a “cyber incident” initiated by an outside group. It is still investigating the incident, Sullivan said.
“Upon learning of this incident, we immediately launched a restoration and recovery effort, which included engaging industry-leading third-party information technology and forensic specialists to conduct a thorough investigation into the source and extent of the incident, including the amount and type of data that may have been affected,” she said. “Our investigation into this incident is ongoing and at this time, we are still working to determine what information may have been accessed.”
Central Maine CEO Steve Littleson issued a public letter late Monday, in which he said that when the outage was detected, the hospital system’s information technology teams and national cybersecurity experts contained and assessed the situation before working toward restoration.
Less than a week after St. Mary’s officials reported their computer systems were down, Central Maine Healthcare leaders reported all of their systems had gone down as well. Patients in that hospital system reported the same barriers to getting service, medication and reaching providers.
As of last week, Central Maine had restored more of its system, fully restoring its radiation therapy services. Through the past month, roughly, the health system had been working on restoration, with its phone lines coming online gradually.
During the outage, Central Maine’s providers and staff worked to maintain quality of care despite going back to pen and paper documentation, Littleson said in his letter.
“The dedication of our team members and caregivers never wavered,” he said. “Our doctors, nurses and clinical teams moved quickly — relying on tireless coordination — to ensure you and your family continued to receive the compassionate, high-quality care you deserve. Our emergency departments and physician practices were as busy as ever, and we remained focused on delivering care despite the circumstances.”
We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.