On Wednesday evening, the board of the Helseplattformen held an extraordinary board meeting to inform about an extensive letter error. On Tuesday, it became known that 16,438 electronic letters from St. Olav’s hospital have not arrived where they were supposed to. About half of the letters are invitations to appointments at the hospital. – It is potentially very serious if there is someone who has not received the information they should have and it is also completely unacceptable that it is like this, said Helge Garåsen, chairman of the Helseplattformen, on Tuesday. It was he who called the meeting when he was made aware of how many letters were involved. Due to user error The error was discovered last week when test answers that should have arrived did not. This was said by the CEO of the Health Platform, Torbjørg Vanvik, during the meeting. She says the error has occurred because it is easy for the user to choose the wrong letter template. According to her, what is correct should have been informed about through training and user guides. Torbjørg Vanvik is managing director of the Health Platform. Photo: Bent Lindsetmo / news – More emphasis must be placed on training when it comes to communication, she says. Vanvik also says that part of the reason for the error is that employees at St. Olavs bring work flow from the old system into the new one. Stretches back to the introduction The error with the letters stretches all the way back to the introduction of the Health Platform at the beginning of November. – For now, we know that there is a huge number of letters that have not ended up where they were supposed to. What kind of consequences this has had is uncertain at the moment. But it’s not good, county doctor Jan Vaage told news. 10,714 of the patient letters must have reached the patient, but not recipients who are on the copy, such as the GP. From Trondheim municipality, there were 1,395 letters that did not arrive. A review shows that 152 letters from St. Olav’s were test answers. Three of these contained information on important follow-ups. All those affected have received intended health care, even if the letters did not arrive. Clinicians will begin work on going through all the letters on Thursday to ensure the clean-up job is completed. Epic, which is the supplier of the journal system, comes with an update that means that it will not be possible to make the same mistake again. It will be tested next week. – The health platform must take responsibility Vivi Bakkeheim is the company representative for the superiors at St. Olavs. She says the Health Platform itself must take responsibility for all the problems that have arisen after the introduction. – Hope no one puts the blame on the users this time. This is a system error, and the Health Platform must take responsibility as they are the ones who have developed the solution, she said ahead of the meeting. – There is something completely wrong with the solution, when it fails to detect that letters do not arrive. The only way to regain trust is for the Helseplattformen and Helse Midt-Norge to show humility and listen to the feedback that comes in, so that we get a real chance to improve this, says Bakkeheim. It also emerged in the meeting that several board members believe this should never have happened. They questioned why this was not discovered earlier. – Major crisis of confidence St. Olav’s hospital has sent a report of concern to the State Administrator in Trøndelag about the error. – Confidence is starting to erode. Therefore, I believe that the most important thing we can do is to go out with open and honest information whenever we find something. That is the way we can keep the population safe, and ensure that it is safe to be a patient at St. Olav. That’s what hospital director Grethe Aasved says. Grethe Aasved is hospital director at St. Olav’s hospital in Trondheim. Photo: Tariq Alisubh / news The GPs have for a long time stated that they receive many fewer electronic messages and epicrises from St. Olavs than has been normal. Nevertheless, the news that over 16,000 letters have not arrived came as a surprise. – We are now in a major crisis of confidence. That this was discovered only now is very worrying. That’s what Lindy Jarosch-von Schweder, head of the Sør-Trøndelag medical association, says. She says many people are distraught over the situation, and afraid of whether the patients have received good enough treatment. – I know that employees in the Helseplattformen and Hemit work well together to get an overview. But GPs have conveyed this for a long time. The actors must talk more together, and find good arenas for dialogue.
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Director of the Health Platform blames users for 16,000 letters not getting where they were supposed to – news Trøndelag
