Technical Glitch Forces Queensland Hospital Staff to Use Pen and Paper

A nurse is seen working at a Covid-19 testing clinic at Ipswich Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, on Aug. 24, 2020. Glenn Hunt/Getty Images

Staff at many hospitals in Queensland have to resort to pen and paper after a technical glitch left them stranded without access to the medical record system for hours.

On Nov. 22, an outage occurred to the state’s integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) system in the early morning, making it impossible for medical staff to log in and access digital patient records.

The ieMR system is designed to allow healthcare professionals to simultaneously access and update patient information, including vital signs, in real time to improve the safety, efficiency and quality of clinical workflow processes.

According to Queensland Health, 16 hospitals in the state are currently using the system, with another 14 to adopt it in the future.

Due to the outage, staff at affected hospitals had to use pen and paper to process patients’ information.

“Users logged on prior to the issue commencing at about 8 a.m. this morning are able to continue using the ieMR system,” Queensland Health said in a statement on social media.

“Where healthcare workers cannot log in, well-practised alternative paper-based processes are in place.”

It was not until late afternoon on that day that the technical issue was resolved, restoring the log-in function of the ieMR system.

Queensland Health later said backup systems at hospitals had “operated well” and that the department was not aware of any safety issues with patients due to the outage.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely,” it said.

“A post-incident review analysis to understand the cause of the issue, and steps to prevent it occurring again in the future, will take place over coming days.”

Queensland Health also noted that impacted hospitals were able to provide all clinical services during the outage while ensuring that privacy and confidentiality procedures remain in place.

Opposition Criticises Queensland Government

Following the outage, Opposition spokesperson Ros Bates said Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman was hit with another “embarrassing bungle” after ambulance delays resulted in the death of two patients just a few days earlier.

On Nov. 18, a 51-year-old mother was found dead at her home by her family.

It was revealed that the woman dialled triple zero (the emergency number) the previous evening after suffering chest pain, but the ambulance never arrived.

One day earlier, a 67-year-old man died in an ambulance outside the Ipswich hospital after being left waiting for three hours.

The man was not transferred to an emergency room despite the paramedics escalating his condition several times.

The state government has launched a clinical review into the incident.

“The health minister today must explain how Queensland’s digital medical records system could experience such a catastrophic failure, putting as health workers say, patient safety at risk,” Ms Bates said.

“Hospitals across the state have spent most of today unable to access the digital patient records needed to keep them safe.

“Queenslanders deserve answers and the buck stops with Shannon Fentiman.”

Ambulances are lined up outside Cairns Airport in Cairns, Australia, on Feb. 2, 2011. Paul Crock/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton defended the state’s healthcare system after the two deaths.

While expressing condolence to the dead patients’ families, the president said the whole system was under strain and that it was only a matter of time before such tragedies occurred.

“It is devastating. And this is what happens because the system is under such strain,” she told Nine News.

“We know that our healthcare workers do the best they can in a system that is completely broken, and this is not on them, but it also affects them because they don’t want to lose any lives.

“They’re doing the best they possibly can in a system that’s providing very little support for the healthcare workers and the families that are involved.”

Ms. Boulton said the Queensland government needed to step up with more funding to resolve the lack of hospital beds and medical staff shortages in the state.