Jim Cyr

On Monday we announced Central Maine Healthcare is back online! We are excited to reach  this milestone. 

Please continue to follow us on social media or link to this news feed from the orange banner at the top of our normal webpage for the most up-to-date information. We will continue to keep you informed.    

• Website: Our normal website is online at www.cmhc.org. From the website, you can  easily link to the patient portal, find providers and locations, schedule appointments with most primary care providers or pay your bill. 
• Phones: Our software that activates our phone tree system has been redeployed. Your call will be routed to the person most helpful to answer your questions. We expect call volume to be high across all our locations in the next few days as we return to normal operations. 
• Pharmacy: Our systems at the CMMC Pharmacy at 12 High Street and the Specialty Pharmacy at 10 High Street are now online. We anticipate it will take some time to fill the backlog of prescription requests and new requests. If you need an immediate prescription, please come to the pharmacy and ask to speak to someone individually. They will be glad to help. You may call the CMMC Pharmacy for refills or questions at 207-795-7177 or text 207-739-4067. The automated refill phone line is available any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 
• Patient portal: MyHealthlink patient portal was always available to you even during the system outage and we hope you took advantage of the information contained there. Your providers are now able to connect to the portal, but it will take some time to get through accumulated messages. All messages will be returned. If your message is urgent, please call your physician’s office or visit us in person. We will be very glad to help you.
• Lab and x-rays:  All lab work and x-rays that were done during the system outage will be available on the patient portal, myHealthLink. If you have a question about a lab draw or an x-ray that was run during our system outage, please contact the physician office where the test was requested.
• Appointments: If your appointment with us required rescheduling or certain test results or procedures were delayed, you will hear from us soon to reschedule your visit, procedure or review your results. If you have an urgent need or do not hear from us within two weeks, please call or visit your physician office. We will be very glad to help you get your appointment rescheduled and it will be nice to see you in person. 
• Medical record: If you requested your medical record, we are now able to process your request. If this request is urgent, please contact the hospital switchboard and we will expedite.

At the Cancer Care Center at Central Maine Medical Center, our state-of-the-art Varian TrueBeam linear accelerators deliver radiation therapy with speed, precision and advanced technology—targeting tumors effectively while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. This leading-edge equipment depends on sophisticated computer systems to operate with accuracy, safety and reliability. We know that the Cancer Care Center is one of only a few sites in Maine for this type of radiation therapy and getting online was one of our highest priorities. 

We are pleased to share that radiation therapy services at the Cancer Care Center have been fully restored. Our linear accelerators and related systems have undergone rigorous testing and validation by our information technology and oncology physics teams to ensure clinical readiness and patient safety.

If you have not yet heard from your oncology care team, please know we will be reaching out soon to schedule or reschedule your treatment appointments and to discuss your care plan. We are honored to support you on your cancer journey and remain committed to delivering the highest quality of care.

If you have questions, please contact us at 207-795-2935.

We continue to restore normal operations following our recent system outage. With most of our practices and locations now fully reachable by phone, we are retiring the “Contact Us” form from our temporary website.

Nearly 600 patients used the form to schedule or reschedule appointments, request prescription refills, and get assistance during the outage — and we’re grateful it helped us stay connected when phones were down.

Now, the best way to reach us is directly by phone or in person. If you are still unable to reach the location or provider of your choice, please call one of our main switchboards for support:

• Main Switchboard:
  207-795-0111
• Central Maine Medical Center:
  207-795-0111
• Bridgton Hospital:
  207-647-6000
• Rumford Hospital:
  207-369-1000

We will continue to keep you informed as we move one step closer to full system restoration each day — with a continued commitment to your care and convenience.

Our information technology teams are moving swiftly toward full restoration of our systems and schedules. Patients may receive phone calls from our team. These calls are an important part of reconnecting with you—whether it’s to confirm a routine appointment, discuss lab or imaging results, or reschedule an elective surgery.

Our team may ask you to confirm information, like your full name, date of birth, or insurance details. We will never ask for your Social Security number.

We encourage you to take these steps if you are unsure about a call:

• Ask questions. Our team members will gladly identify themselves.
• Hang up if something doesn’t feel right. Then, call your practice directly or call our main switchboard at 207-795-0111.
• Don’t give your Social Security number—no one from Central Maine Healthcare will ever request it over the phone. 

If you are ever in doubt, give us a call—we’ll be happy to confirm we called, and it’s always nice to hear from you.

Since the system outage on June 1, our physician and clinical teams have remained fully committed to providing safe, high-quality care for our communities. We quickly activated our established downtime procedures, shifting from computer to paper systems, ensuring patient care continued with minimal interruption.  Many of us remember well the days of paper charts and few computers.  

Throughout our emergency departments, operating rooms, and physician practices, we have continued to care for patients at a high level—from routine visits to urgent surgical procedures. I am incredibly proud of all our team members who have risen to this challenge with skill, professionalism, and compassion.

As we make steady progress toward full system restoration, I want to reassure our communities that patient safety and high-quality care remain our highest priority. If your appointment with us required rescheduling, or certain test results or procedures were delayed, you have either heard or will hear from us soon to reschedule your visit, procedure or review your results. 

On behalf of your medical staff, we are doing what we do best, providing excellent, high-quality care to our patients every day—with every resource possible—because you are not just our patients, you are our neighbors, friends and family.

The Central Maine Healthcare information technology team, along with a team of national healthcare experts, continue to assess the restoration of our systems after the reported outage on June 1, 2025. While we do not have a clear timeline for full restoration of our systems, servers and computers, we will continue to provide updates as they become available. 

Almost all phone lines have been restored. Patients can contact all hospitals and most physician practices. There are a few exceptions where phone lines are still down, most notably the CMMC Outpatient Pharmacies, Central Maine Healthcare Orthopedics and therapy services locations.

The Cancer Care Center at Central Maine Medical Center has two functioning lines as of today. If you have difficulty reaching the Cancer Care Center, please call the main switchboard at 207-795-0111.

Swift River Family Medicine also has working phone lines.

What if I need a prescription?

If you need a new prescription or a refill, please call or visit the doctor’s office where you are regularly seen. 

Your doctor’s office can be reached at their usual office number. Your call will be answered by our caregiver team, and they will be glad to speak with you. 

If you are having difficulty getting through to us by phone, please call the hospital switchboard at 207-795-0111 and a message will be hand delivered to your doctor’s office. 

Other local pharmacies

While many prescriptions can be called into local pharmacies from your doctor’s office, some require a handwritten prescription for the local pharmacy to accept it.

In these cases, if your provider authorizes the prescription, you will need to pick up the paper prescription in person and bring it to the pharmacy of your choice. 

What can the CMMC Pharmacy do to help me?

If you are a regular patient at our CMMC Pharmacy at 12 High Street or CMMC Specialty Pharmacy at 10 High Street on the CMMC campus, the pharmacy team may be able to help you with some medications. 

Although the pharmacy phone lines are currently not working, you are welcome to visit the pharmacy in person and ask to speak to our team about your prescriptions. 

If you are unable to visit us in person, please call the hospital switchboard at 207-795-0111.

Text and email reminders for appointments
We cannot currently send email or text reminders to patients. In some cases, we have been able to find schedules and call patients to remind them of appointments, but this varies by location and day. If you are on the myHealthlink patient portal, your appointments will be visible there. Once we are back on the network, this service will resume as soon as possible. 

Appointment cancellations
If an appointment is cancelled, Central Maine Healthcare teams are doing their best to contact you. If you are on the myHealthlink patient portal, your appointment will also be visible there. 

Medical records
Due to our system outage, we are unable to access your record. Your name will be put on a prioritized list for fulfillment, and we will be glad to accommodate your request as soon as our system is online. 

If you are a patient with access to our patient portal, myHealthlink, you may be able to access some of your records there. 

The Topsham Care Center phone is now accepting calls at 207-798-6300.

Team members at Central Maine Healthcare are working tirelessly to restore systems and have made significant progress since the outage began early last week.  

Many phone lines have been restored, with 12 more added today. We are able to accept patient calls at Central Maine Medical Center, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital and primary care practices, all of which are busy treating patients. 

Our information technology team has been augmented with national healthcare IT experts who continue to work around the clock to address the cause of the system outage and restore the network as soon as possible. 

Doctors at all hospital locations are performing surgery and diagnostic procedures with schedules that are growing daily.  

Central Maine Medical Center continues to treat all patients who arrive by ambulance, as well as walk-in patients, including trauma and cardiovascular patients who are in need of advanced interventional care. 

Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital emergency departments continue to accept all patients. 

Patients can visit  www.centralmainehealthcare.org or access the link from each of the hospital Facebook pages for daily updates.