Hospital Mistakenly Emailed Patient Names, Prescriptions

BANGOR, Maine - A Maine psychiatric hospital says the release of confidential information about 300 people receiving medication-assisted drug treatment to a newspaper was an "isolated" mistake. The Bangor Daily News reports that Northern Light Acadia Hospital in Bangor mistakenly emailed the names of 300 patients with prescriptions for Suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder. The list included the patients' names and their doctors. Acadia's president, Scott Oxley, called the blunder this month "a huge deal" but said the "isolated" mistake stemmed from human error, not a systemic problem. The mistake could lead to an audit of the hospital's privacy and security protocols. Acadia is required to report the incident to federal regulators. Northern Lights Acadia Hospital provides both inpatient and community-based psychiatric care and substance use treatment programs.