SA Health’s computer patient record system crashes – again

SA hospitals grappled with a computer outage as problems with the electronic patient record system Sunrise triggered a Code Yellow internal emergency.

Internal emergencies were declared in South Australian hospitals on Tuesday as SA Health’s statewide electronic patient record system crashed – again.

Hospitals were put on Code Yellow, triggering internal emergency procedures as technicians worked to fix the problem with the Sunrise system – which has replaced paper records.

Lack of access to electronic patient records means clinicians are unable to swiftly check crucial details as patients arrive – from allergies to past medications.

The problem started at 1pm and was fixed by 2.45pm and SA Health says there were no adverse clinical outcomes.

The problem came as most metropolitan hospital emergency departments were operating near or at official capacity.

Patients faced an average wait of almost eight hour hours at Modbury Hospital and 81 minutes at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where the 69-capacity ED was treating 69 people with 13 waiting.

However, SA Health’s ED data screen showed no waiting time at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital — despite the QEH having 34 people being treated in its 29 capacity ED and another 13 waiting to be seen.

There was also no wait time listed at Lyell McEwin Hospital despite it having 14 people listed as “waiting to be seen” and 43 being treated in its 59 capacity ED.

SASMOA Chief Industrial Officer, Bernadette Mulholland. Picture: Matt Loxton.

SA Salaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said there needed to be a review and possible replacement of the system.

“Given the consistent breakdowns of the SA Health electronic patient records system, there needs to be a genuine reflection about whether the technology was ever fit for purpose,” she said.

“Doctors are already struggling to cope in a high demand, overwhelmed health system.

“To not have the appropriate IT tools, to ensure patient and the community are safe is unacceptable and the bureaucracy needs to determine whether this system should be retained or replaced.”

A SA Health statement says: Network Issues with SA Health programs Sunrise EMR and PAS have been resolved.

“All affected sites enacted business continuity plans immediately and we are not aware of any adverse clinical outcomes on patients.”

A computer outage in April cause by an electrical fire at the Glenside Data Centre saw SA Health chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence issue a plea for people to stay away from hospitals unless it was a genuine emergency.

“South Australians should always present to hospital in an emergency and for any serious matters, but we also ask people to please consider other options at this time for non-urgent care,” she said at the time.

A second, unrelated outage lasting 35 minutes occurred later in the same week, while problems with the system freezing put hospitals into meltdown in December 2022.

The Sunrise system was salvaged from the troubled EPAS electronic patient record system which blew out in cost and time to implement and was scrapped in 2019.

However Sunrise has had its own problem, including in 2021 adding extra digits to medication doses, such as turning a 10mg dose into a 100mg dose.