The Norwegian Health Authority wrote in a report in April that errors and shortcomings in the Health Platform threaten patient safety. During a presentation to the board of Helse Møre og Romsdal on Wednesday, it was claimed that these errors have been resolved through error correction and improvement of the system. – The recording from the Norwegian Health Authority has been blacked out, said introduction manager for the Health platform in Helse Møre og Romsdal (HMR), Henrik Erdal. Board member Torgeir Aas Sand reacted to this. – Hardly anything positive Sand, who is the elected representative of the employees in HMR, pulled up a recent document from St. Olav’s hospital which gives a completely different picture. – There is almost nothing positive about the Health Platform in these documents, said Aas Sand. Sand took the floor after the director of e-health and IT, Helge Storøy, and the introduction manager for the Health platform in the health enterprise, Henrik Erdal, had briefed on the progress of the record system. – It is stated here that the most essential part of the criticism from the Norwegian Health Authority has been improved. That’s not right. That is not true when we read in the board documents from St. Olav’s hospital. It is still challenging. There are still delays. And still a problem, said Aas Sand, who is elected as representative of the employees. The board meeting in Helse Møre og Romsdal asked for a more thorough case resolution for the December meeting. The unrest among employees must also be part of this analysis, the board resolution states. Photo: Remi Sagen / news Still high risk Thus, fresh case documents from St. Olav’s hospital became central to the review by the board of Helse Møre og Romsdal. In these case papers it is stated, among other things: 9 clinics report a high risk to patient safety. Milestones have not been met and there are backlogs for error correction. The Directorate for Radiation Protection will conclude on deviations and violations of radiation protection rules. The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority has notified 8 departments of inspections following reports of concern. The steering group for the introduction of the Health Platform calls for and urges information, and questions its own function when they do not get an answer. This will be presented to the board of St. Olav’s hospital at a meeting on 16 November. – Too simple Employee representative Tore Schytte also thought it was not right to focus only on error corrections that have to do with patient safety. He pointed out that there is a risk in terms of both recruiting and retaining professionals. – People are worried about their own work situation. People wonder what consequences the Health Platform may have for the economy in the longer term. People are afraid of missing their colleagues. The unrest among the employees is about far more than just patient safety, said Schytte. Director of E-health and technology in Helse Møre og Romsdal, Helge Storøy during the briefing on the progress in the error correction of the Health platform. Photo: Remi Sagen / news Decision put forward Health Møre and Romsdal were originally supposed to make a final decision on the introduction of the Health Platform just before Christmas. This has now been brought forward to 7 December. Today’s board meeting clarified that they need a more thorough investigation in order to be able to make a sound decision. And the board specifically asked that the unrest among the employees be made a point in the decision. – That is the concern among the employees. We must take these concerns with us further. And it is important that Helse Møre and Romsdal make their own, independent assessments. We are different from St. Olav’s. We have four hospitals at various points in the county, said director Heidi Nilsen. Demonstrations On Monday evening, several hundred health workers demonstrated at all hospitals in Central Norway against the consequences of the Health Platform. The aim of the action is to have the entire project scrapped. – The biggest concern is about patient safety, without a doubt. We hope that the management will make the only sensible choice and postpone the introduction, says senior physician at the medical department at Ålesund Hospital, Dani Rodian. Several hundred healthcare workers had turned up for the torchlight procession towards the Health Platform at Ålesund Hospital. Photo: Hans-Olav Landsverk / news Dilemma Health Møre and Romsdal are thus faced with an important choice between two alternatives. The one alternative is to use the Health platform in April 2024 as planned. The other option is to wait until after the move-in phase in the new hospital at Hjelset is complete. If the last option is chosen, the Health platform will not be put into use in Helse Møre og Romsdal until spring 2026. – Such a new deployment will probably result in large costs, says leader of the introduction project in Helse Møre og Romsdal, Henrik Erdal. Helseplattforma Helseplattforma The Helseplattforma is a record system that is planned to be used by the entire public health system in Central Norway. The computer system also facilitates interaction between municipalities and hospitals. Eventually, the intention is also to connect the GPs in Central Norway. The project is based on technology from the American company Epic Systems. But extensive work has been carried out to prepare the system for the Norwegian healthcare system. The company Helseplattforma AS was established on 1 March 2019 and is owned by Helse Midt-Noreg and several municipalities. A number of experts, both within information technology, health and public administration, have been critical of the choice of technical solution for the Health Platform throughout large parts of the process. – Danger to patient safety It was in 2016 that Helse Midt-Noreg was singled out as a pilot region to develop a system that could form the basis of a digital record system for the entire public healthcare system. This has taken time, and since then other national systems have been developed and systems that are used in other regions. In November 2022, the Health Platform was put into use at St. Olav’s hospital in Trondheim. This has revealed that the system has major and serious errors and shortcomings. Several of the errors have created both direct and indirect threats to patient safety. Communication about patients and test results has disappeared, medication errors have occurred and calls for examinations in connection with serious diagnoses have been delayed. – Many of the priority cases from St. Olav’s hospital and in the report from the Norwegian Health Authority consist of errors that are direct threats to patient safety, it is stated in the case file for the board meeting in Helse Møre og Romsdal. Error correction In a press release, Helse Midt-Noreg states that over 16,000 changes have been made to the system after St. Olav’s adopted the Health Platform in November 2022. – The introduction of the Health Platform has been particularly challenging for St. Olav’s hospital and it is put in a lot of work to take care of patient safety, correct errors and improve the solution, the press release states.
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Dispute over error correction in the Health platform: – The information is incorrect
