More than 16,000 letters did not reach patients due to an error in the recently introduced HealthPlatformen system. The district doctor questions why it took four months to detect such a critical error.
Several thousand electronic letters from St Olav’s Hospital did not reach GPs and patients due to a computer error. The hospital said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
In total, 16,438 letters were not delivered to individual recipients.
10,714 patient letters were noted to have reached the patient but not the copy recipient such as a GP.
The reason for the error was a computer error in the character templates in the new electronic system Health siteHealth siteHealthPlatform is a new, common digital platform for health care in Central Norway. St. Olav Hospital, Trondheim municipality and two GP offices in Trondheim were the first to introduce the health platform.. The hospital says it became aware of the problem on Thursday, March 2.
Journal system does not send corresponding letters from the computer or any error message. Instead, employees received confirmation that the communication was sent, the press release said.
Therefore, the hospital should not have been unaware that the information was never reaching the doctors and patients. According to the hospital, there was an error when the health platform was launched in mid-November last year.
On Monday 6 March, it became clear to the hospital that this would apply to several thousand letters.
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– A serious incident
– It has been almost four months since the introduction of the health floor in St. Ola. “It’s surprising that such a fatal error hasn’t been discovered until now,” John Veg, the district doctor at Trøndelag, tells VG.
– The district doctor says the clean-up is sure to be a daunting task when he has to go through 16,000 letters that haven’t arrived.
He also says that many of these letters may contain outdated information. Vaj points out that this is why he did not send the letters again.
– Now some letters seem to be about hourly contracts. We have to see how much the delay in treatment has caused discomfort to the patients. We don’t know anything about it yet.
– This is a serious incident of concern. The hospital itself is very worried about what lies behind it, he says.
16,000 letters to be sent
– It is worrying that again information is not getting out of the hospital. Together with Helseplattformen AS, we have begun a systematic review of the letters to ensure that patients, GPs and other partners receive the information they should have, hospital director Grethe Aasved said in a press release.
– For the letters we initially approached, fortunately we see that many patients have already been taken care of through calls for surgery. But it certainly can’t be ruled out that the condition can have serious consequences for some patients, says Osweth.
The hospital informed that the said letters will be sent by regular post as soon as possible.
The state administration has been informed about the incident.
A late introduction elsewhere
A much-discussed registration system called Helseplatformen is about to be introduced in several locations in central Norway.
On 26 February, it was decided at a board meeting of Hells Mid-Norge to delay the introduction of the hospitals in Møre and Romsdal by one year.
Hospitals in Nord-Trøndelag will be connected to the new system in November.
However, St. Olav’s Hospital Hospital has been using the system since November, but has struggled with incorrect prescription lists, missing electronic messages and complex solutions.
The Norwegian Health Authority opened an investigation into St. Ola’s in February following warnings of several serious errors. The hospital could not rule out that it was because of the new system.
District doctor John Vage says the computer failure in electronic correspondence from St. Ola’s will have an impact on how the study is being followed up.
In a letter of concern to the Statsforvalteren, St. Olav writes that they are now working on creating a tracking tool that will capture all undelivered letters.
– You might ask yourself why it wasn’t introduced earlier, says Wage.
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