Troubled EPAS electronic records system crashes at Queen Elizabeth Hospital creating major headache
A SYSTEMS crash at an overcrowded Queen Elizabeth Hospital was a “dangerous, chaotic crisis” and potentially fatal for patients, the state’s peak doctors union says
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A 10-HOUR computer crash at an overcrowded Queen Elizabeth Hospital was a “dangerous, chaotic crisis” and potentially fatal for patients creating major problems for medical staff, the state’s peak doctors union says.
Both the Health Minister Jack Snelling and SA Health heads have assured South Australians patient safety was not put at risk during the ordeal, which meant hospital staff had limited or no access to patient records.
The EPAS (Enterprise Patient Administration System) crashed at 2pm on Monday after a software glitch and wasn’t restored until about midnight.
The State Government today claimed “contingency plans” were put in place that meant staff could access patient records on “extra computers spread throughout the hospital”, however both the state’s doctors and nurses union say this was not the case.
The controversial system, which is years overdue and the cost of which has blown out to $422m, has attracted widespread criticism, including by Coroner Mark Johns during his inquest into the death of former Socceroo Stephen Herczeg.
The government today also admitted the system was “running slow” at both the Noarlunga and Repat hospitals, a result of Monday’s glitch.
SA Salaried Medical Officers Association senior industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said doctors told her “the place was dangerous, it was chaos and the beds were full and there was nowhere for the patients to go”.
“What our members are telling us is that this was a crisis,” Ms Mulholland said.
As a result of the problem, the hospital’s emergency department became “more and more crowded”, she said.
“During that period of time, they (doctors) had to basically record the patients, find the patients, identify the issues were for each of the patients and then to try and elevate the crisis to senior administers was very difficult,” she said.
“They (the government) were very lucky they had those people working not to have an adverse event.”
Ms Mulholland said the union had repeatedly told the government the EPAS system was “clunky, slow and timing out” but their pleas were ignored.
“We’re tired of complaining about the EPAS system — we’ve been doing it now for two years and no one’s listening,” she said.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation chief executive Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars said the “unprecedented failure was a significant setback in a system that was going in the right direction”.
She told The Advertiser union members had told her one patient, who desperately needed pain medication, could not access the drugs because the system was down.
“It’s highly undesirable and a terrible situation for that patient to be in,” she said.
Prof Dabars said the government needed to determine the problem to ensure it does not happen again.
“All systems have their limitations and defects and it’s important (the State Government) identifies and corrects this issue in how to avoid this in the future so clinicians can focus on their real job of caring for their patients,” she said.
Prof Dabars said the nursing union had “consistently raised concerns” about EPAS before to the government, in particular the fact that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital has no space for paper records.
“We’ve always asserted there should be contingencies in place at the new RAH,” she said.
“(But) we do realise that the way of the future is to have a computerised system.”
SA Health E-Health executive director Bill Le Blanc said the problem was identified and the system had been restored - but he could not guarantee it would not fail again.
“There are no guarantees in life.
“Certainly we’re doing all that we can to assure ourselves to assure clinicians and to assure the public that the system is ready and safe and I believe it is,” he said.
“Now our focus will turn to what caused that particular piece of software to malfunction.”
Mc Le Black said that since June 29, when the system was installed at the QEH, statistics showed it had already reduced medication errors by 27 per cent.
Mr Snelling emphasised at no stage was patient care compromised.
“I’m not happy that this happened ... processes were in place to make sure our patients were kept safe,” he said.
“(The hospital had) extra computers that were spread throughout the hospital so that patient records could be accessed by our doctors and nurses.
“It’s simply not true to assert that patient records were not available to doctors and nurses.”
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said he had “grave concerns” about the EPAS system roll-out and what it would mean for patient safety, especially at the new RAH.
“Doctors for months now have been ringing the alarm bells about the EPAS system, yet the government has gone ahead and continued the roll-out,” he said.
“It’s very important that he (Minister Snelling) stops the roll out of EPAS at other sites - we need a full independent review of the risks in EPAS and how they can be managed.”
