Controversial patient record system EPAS to be scrapped and remade under new name Sunrise

South Australia’s troubled electronic medical records system will be scrapped and “fundamentally reconstructed” after a review found the program was poorly implemented and locked out clinicians.

• READ THE FULL EPAS INDEPENDENT REVIEW HERE
• EPAS contributed to 149 ‘near misses’ in SA hospitals

South Australia’s troubled electronic medical records system will be scrapped and “fundamentally reconstructed” after a review found the program was poorly implemented and locked out clinicians.

The controversial Enterprise Patient Administration System (EPAS) will continue to use the same software, Sunrise, created by vendor Allscripts, and is set to be called Sunrise.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said the revamped system — which will put clinicians and Allscripts at the forefront of the implementation and rollout process — would initially be rolled out at Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Mt Gambier Hospital.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said the revamped system would be initially rolled out at the RAH and the Mt Gambier Hospital. Picture: Matt Turner

“While there are limitations with the Allscripts product, the bigger issues were with the configuration and the implementation,” he said.

He said the rollout of the Sunrise software at the RAH and Mt Gambier would be completed next year, and within EPAS’ $421 million budget.

It’s unclear what the total cost of rolling out the software throughout the state will be, but more than $320 million has already been spent on EPAS.

EPAS was already fully rolled-out in a range of GP centres the Port Augusta, Queen Elizabeth and Noarlunga hospitals, the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre and parts of the Flinders Medical Centre when the rollout was halted last year. SA Salaried Medical Officers Association chief executive Bernadette Mulholland said clinicians were “burnt” by EPAS.