NSW Health Takes A Hit from the Australian Financial Review.

The following appeared today.

Fears for patients amid e-record troubles

The NSW government and senior health bureaucrats have been accused of putting the lives of patients at risk by ignoring the concerns of clinicians over the troubled deployment of the FirstNet electronic patient records and administration system.

The key points of the article are:

1. Some departments have reverted to using paper for patient records.

2. The concerns centre on the time it takes to enter and retrieve details.

More here (subscription required)

http://www.afr.com/p/business/technology/fears_for_patients_amid_record_troubles_Jt8sQPbgQ32PngTpFLFTmJ

Those who have been watching will know this issue was covered a while ago on the blog.

See:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/11/nsw-health-cerner-and-professor-patrick.html

and here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-release-of-jon-patrick-essay-on.html

and here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/11/professor-patrick-releases-new-version.html

The opposition Health Spokesman in NSW (Ms Jillian Skinner) has apparently also been briefed on issues in the metro hospitals as well as the known issues at more regional hospitals.

As always the silence from NSW Health is deafening.

The mess just continues unfixed it seems.

Let me know if things are better anywhere so we can let people know.

David.