Grande Ronde Hospital says review request texts were sent in error

Grande Ronde Hospital said June 26 that some patients received text messages asking them to leave Google reviews for visits that happened years ago, and that the messages were sent in error. The hospital said the problem stemmed from a file used by its review-request partner, and it told anyone who got the text to ignore or delete it.

The message itself was brief, but the reach was not small for a hospital that has served Union County since 1907 and says it is the largest private employer in the county, with more than 800 employees. GRH says it has more than 80 providers, 21 primary and specialty clinics, and handles more than 200,000 patient encounters each year, which means even a routine communication glitch can land with thousands of local patients across La Grande and surrounding Eastern Oregon communities.

GRH has not said patients were asked to do anything beyond the review request, and its public guidance did not call for a reply, a reset, or a security step. The hospital’s response centered on a simple instruction: no action is needed. That matters in a setting where patients may wonder whether old visit information was pulled into a marketing-style text and whether their contact details were handled correctly.

The hospital’s patient portal, MyChart, is described by GRH as a secure way to access health records, and the hospital says it is not for urgent medical matters. That distinction underscores how seriously hospitals have to treat message routing and digital access, especially when a text reaches a patient unexpectedly and refers back to care from several years ago.

Federal privacy rules help explain why the texts drew attention. HHS says HIPAA requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of protected health information and sets limits on how that information can be used and disclosed. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says hospitals and critical access hospitals may text patient information only through a HIPAA-compliant secure texting platform and under required conditions of participation.

For Union County patients, the practical takeaway is straightforward: if the text came to your phone, delete it and move on. GRH is treating the issue as an administrative error tied to an outside review process, not as something that requires patients to take further steps.