Northern Light Health works to get back online after computer server breach

Courtesy / Eastern Maine Medical Center Eastern Maine Medical Center, in Bangor, is the 411-bed flagship facility of Northern Light Health.

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By William Hall

Maine's second-largest health care system, Northern Light Health, said on Monday part of its computer network remained down after servers were discovered Saturday to have been breached.

"None of the affected servers contain patient information," the provider said in a news release over the weekend and repeated Monday morning on social media.

"However, out of an abundance of caution we made the decision to take our patient records systems offline and use downtime procedures while we investigate what happened and implement any remedial measures."

After learning that the servers were compromised, Northern Light said, its staff worked around-the-clock over the weekend to determine the extent of the problem. State and federal officials were also notified.

"We are continuing this work and anticipate our electronic medical records will be back online today," the social media post said. "This is a big job, and our focus as always is patient safety and privacy."

In the meantime, Northern Light hospitals remained open on Monday, most services were continuing without interruption, and medical appointments were still on schedule. Online laboratory orders were not accessible, however, requiring patients to have paper orders. Northern Light also said there might be delays in responding to phone calls and medical refill requests.

Nothern Light Health, headquartered in Brewer, comprises 10 hospitals including 411-bed Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor; over 1,000 physicians; six home care and hospice centers; and a total of more than 120 care locations.