QLD health tech hindered
An attempt to rollout a digital health system in Queensland has hit another snag.
Reports say government officials have knocked back $150 million required to push Queensland’s new integrated electronic Medical Record (ieMR) system into Metro North hospitals.
The system is in place in 14 hospitals, but has been plagued by issues including potentially incorrect radiology data and defects that last year “caused 832 medications to be altered within the system”, posing a potential “patient safety risk”, internal error logs suggest.
There were instances in which incorrect patient charts appeared on screens, which “could result in significant clinical errors including incorrect diagnoses, allergies or prescriptions, or clinical activity being undertaken on an incorrect patient”.
A senior clinician has told reporters that an error within the system had meant “a patient was given drugs meant for another patient”.
Queensland’s health minister has denied most of the alleged issues, including the latest funding hitch.
Shadow minister for health Ros Bates said the project is “significantly compromised”, and “there needs to be an independent investigation into the failed roll-out and it needs to report to the parliament not the government”.