There are “serious safety risks” for patients in the rollout of electronic health records in hospitals across England, a charity has warned.
The Patient Safety Study stated that events involving new systems are likely to be underreported and should be flagged. It urged the government to ensure that adverse event reports are effectively monitored. The trust alone has reported more than 900 incidents, including potential patient injuries, after it introduced the new software.
Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said electronic patient record systems had huge potential to improve patient care and treatment, but there were cases where the introduction in the implementation of new procedures that caused “direct and indirect harm to patients”. A report published by the charity in July warned of “significant patient safety risks” associated with the implementation and use of electronic records.
Mrs Gillian Merron, the minister for patient safety, told the charity in a letter last week that the national team reviewed all incidents involving electronic record systems that could cause serious harm to patients. . He said there would be a clinical risk assessment in 2024-25 and “assessing the ongoing risks associated with digital processes”.
Electronic patient records replace paper records and are intended to be a more reliable system, providing an integrated way with access from any screen in the hospital.
The NHS hopes that all healthcare trusts will have an electronic patient-record system by March 2026. Although it offers several benefits, security issues may arise due to the system not being able to work and other information technology systems. There can also be mistakes by employees when using new and unfamiliar technology.
Hughes said: “Electronic patient record systems are becoming increasingly common in healthcare, and are central to plans to transform the NHS digitally. It is important that patient safety is at the heart of the process. theirs to keep those benefits [patient record] systems may inadvertently lead to avoidable harm.
“Patient Safety Education believes that there must be transparency in reporting unexpected harm.”
Two trusts, Royal Surrey NHS foundation trust and Ashford and St Peter’s hospitals NHS foundation trust have launched a new electronic patient record system known as Surrey Safe Care in May 2022 and are reporting incidents different factors affecting patient risk. Royal Surrey reported 927 incidents to the reporting system used to flag potential harm, some of which involved harm to patients. Ashford and St Peter reported 269, with eight cases of low risk and three of moderate risk, according to the Health Services Journal report.
The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation trust said “over 99%” of incidents reported during the implementation of its new patient record system resulted in “low or no harm to patients”.
The trust said: “Implementing an electronic patient record is difficult for any staff and takes time to implement. Patient safety is our number one priority and that is why we encouraged employees to report issues and opportunities for improvement in our incident reporting process.”
A spokesman for Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS foundation trust said: “We regularly review our electronic patient record system to see where improvements can be made. Our priority is to provide quality care safe, high quality which is why we strongly encourage employees to report if they encounter problems.”
The BBC reported in May that of the 89 hospital trusts in England that responded to a freedom of information request to monitor patient injury cases, nearly half reported serious injuries. potential patient outcomes related to electronic patient record systems. According to the report, there were 126 incidents of serious IT-related accidents and three deaths at the two trusts related to problems with the electronic patient record.
An NHS spokesman said: “Electronic patient record systems have been shown to improve patient safety and care, including helping to detect conditions such as sepsis and preventing medication errors, but it is important that produced and processed to a high standard.
“The NHS has well-established systems in place to report, investigate and learn from any patient safety incidents.”
#NHS #electronic #health #records #pose #security #risks