Qld Health rolls back ieMR for some doctors following complaints

A Queensland hospital has been forced to partially roll back the state’s new electronic patient record system after complaints from doctors.

QUEENSLAND’S troubled electronic medical records system has been wound back for a group of clinicians who’ve complained it isn’t fit for purpose.

The Courier-Mail understands anaesthetists at Townsville Hospital were unhappy with the much-touted Integrated Electronic Medical Record (ieMR) system when it rolled out in July, arguing their old digital system worked better.

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They’ve been allowed to go back to their old system while extra functions are added to ieMR.

A Queensland Health statement said the digital hospital program – which replaces paper-based clinical charts – was working well across most parts of Townsville Hospital.

Townsville Hospital’s emergency department

“Where clinicians have requested we do work to improve it, we are, and that’s part of our commitment to spending the next year further optimising the system,” the statement said.

But Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander said Queensland’s health system was lurching from crisis to crisis.

“This rollout should stop immediately until they’ve ironed out all the bugs,” he said.

Doctors and nurses across the state scrambled to switch to paper charts and patient waits blew out following the collapse of ieMR last month.

The system crashed at every one of the 14 hospitals using it for three hours due to a “planned vendor upgrade”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said at the time the cause of the bungle would be investigated.

The ieMR rollout to Metro North and Darling Downs hospital and health services – which include The Prince Charles and Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals – has been delayed until 2021 following a review of a Queensland Audit Office report into the digital hospital system.