Physicians Down Under Get Direct About Danger of Bad HIT

Too often, physicians acquiese to demands by hospital executives that they adjust to and use health IT, even if that health IT is flawed. This is despite the fact that liability for patient care resides with the physicians, not the HIT vendor or executives.

Several physicians Down Under have had enough:

Doctors issue deadly warning
Daily Examiner, Grafton, Australia
David Bancroft | 23rd July 2009

It seems incredible that a patient record system that aims to improve treatment could kill people [not so incredible to the informed - e.g., see "Bad Informatics Can Kill" - ed.], but that is a claim being made about a new system that is almost certainly going to be introduced into the Grafton Base Hospital next week.

Earlier this month, leading health officials from the Lismore Base Hospital wrote to the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) claiming a new Surginet electronic medical record system that had been operating in the hospital for several months would 'inevitably' lead to the death of patients.

But the health service said changes had been made to the Surginet electronic medical record (EMR) system since the concerns were raised by the four senior clinicians on July 2, and the system had been operating 'satisfactorily' in Sydney without patient concerns being raised. ["Without concerns raised" does not mean they do not exist - ed.]

In their letter to NCAHS chief executive officer Chris Crawford, which was copied to the Minister for Health John Della Bosca, the four medical specialists said there had been recurring problems over several months and 'these have not improved'.

“This has resulted in unnecessary compromise of patient safety,” they wrote.

“There have been repeated well demonstrated cases of near miss disasters due to these problems. [Will patients be as lucky the next time? - ed.]

“We believe that negative patient outcomes, including death, will inevitably result from the continuing use of this system.

“Surginet is fundamentally flawed.

“New technology should: improve the quality of our work; help us to be more efficient, and; make routine tasks easier.

“EMR Surginet does none of these; in fact it has had the opposite effect.

“We believe that the Surginet EMR system is unsafe and will result in patient morbidity and mortality.”

Surginet was to be implemented at the Grafton Base Hospital yesterday, but after concerns were raised with the area health service, implementation was delayed until next Wednesday.

A health service spokesman said the implementation had been delayed so the software producers, Cerner [an American company behind the HIT products that caused difficulty in the UK - see the UK House of Commons report here, esp. points 5 and 6 - ed.], could speak with Grafton surgeons and anaesthetists prior to the implementation about any concerns they may have.

“NCAHS takes any concerns raised about patient safety seriously and is addressing these,” the spokesman said.

“It should be emphasised that Surginet is operating satisfactorily in Sydney hospitals without patient safety concerns being raised. [Again, that does not mean they do not exist; clinicians may be afraid to speak out and working furiously to establish workarounds to problems - ed.]

“It is a system used worldwide that can be adapted to accommodate local work practices in NSW hospitals. ["Can be adapted" - anything "can be adapted". But has this application actually been adapted to the culture in NSW hospitals? - ed.]

“Arrangements are being made for discussions to be held with the department heads by representatives of the EMR project team and Cerner.”

The spokesman said Surginet had recently been introduced at the Maclean Hospital and there had been no complaints and the NCAHS had actually received a letter of thanks from the hospital. [A letter of thanks from whom at the hospital, exactly, and based on what substantive claims? - ed.]

Such discrepancies between one hospital and the next regarding HIT require critical evaluation - erring on the side of patient safety, not IT vendor convenience. Considering the aforementioned UK House of Commons report and the "near miss disasters" mentioned by the Australian physicians, such due diligence is mandatory in my opinion.

Further, American physicians can probably learn from these Australian counterparts in being vocal about HIT problems.

-- SS