The stamp burns at St. Olav’s hospital. The health platform is scheduled to be introduced on 12 November, and opposition is increasing among employees. Doctors and nurses at several departments have protested loudly. They believe that the new records system still has such major shortcomings that it will threaten patient safety if the hospital adopts it. The health platform The health platform is responsible for implementing the introduction of a new and common patient record for the health service in central Norway If everything goes according to the health platform’s plan, the solution will be used by 40,000 employees in the health service 720,000 residents will then be able to access their own records digitally through the solution The project is owned by Helse Midt-Norge RHF and Trondheim municipality. The plan was to use the platform at the end of April, but the Health Platform has postponed the introduction by a week. is the region’s largest IT project and has a cost frame of NOK 4.2 billion. The American company Epic has been selected as the supplier for the record solution “Fewer patients will receive treatment and waiting lists will increase”, wrote eleven senior doctors and two specialist nurses at the Surgical Clinic in an open letter to the board at St Olav and the board at Helse Midt-Norge. “Listen to our concerns! Reduced capacity and quality is a disaster”, warn doctors and nurses at the department for heart and lung surgery. “A piece of work”, recently 42 doctors at the emergency room in Trondheim municipality called the new record system. “Paralyzed by disbelief” Now 95 intensive care nurses at St. Olav have also signed a letter, asking that the Health Platform not be introduced. “After being almost paralyzed with disbelief at what we were presented with during two days of introductory courses with the health platform earlier this year, a large part of the nursing service at the Main Intensive Care Unit and Thoracic Intensive Care Unit has entered a phase of resignation and amazement,” it says, among other things in the letter. news has been in contact with several of the nurses who have signed the letter. They experience the system as slow, cumbersome and not adapted to the Norwegian healthcare system. The system from Epic stands in the way of efficient patient care, the nurses believe. – How many pressures are needed to give a bag of blood. Is it 32 or 36 clicks? We have to drop it, because we cannot come out with errors in the computer system, says one of the nurses, who wishes to remain anonymous. Several deficiencies were discovered in the Health Platform this spring, during the exercise at St. Olav. Now the plan is to put it into use in November. Photo: ANDERS WERNER ØFSTI / news Out of the question to scrap the introduction plan – All the hospitals in Norway have a huge influx of patients. We see this in our emergency departments, which increase by several thousand patients every year. That’s what Maiken Isachsen-Hagen, union representative for the Norwegian Nurses’ Association at St. Olav’s hospital, says. The shop stewards have expressed their concern in regular meetings with the hospital management. Therefore, the introduction of the Health Platform was also postponed this spring. Stig Slørdahl, managing director of Helse Midt-Norge is adamant that the Health Platform will be introduced at St. Olav as planned. – Scrapping the system is neither a current nor a possible solution if we are to ensure proper use of health kroner and a proper health service in the future, says Slørdahl. In order to relieve the burden on St. Olav, the other companies must assist, and there will be an increase in the purchase of private health services for a period of time. Stig Slørdahl, CEO of Helse Midt-Norge, says the Health Platform will be introduced at St. Olav. Photo: Bent Lindsetmo / news Company representative Isachsen-Hagen is puzzled by the measures being announced – There are already queues at the other companies and waiting lists, so do they have the capacity to take over our patients? Warns the hospital Mona Størseth is one of 42 doctors who believe that the emergency room’s problems, with record long queues, are due to the Health Platform that was introduced in April. According to the doctors, 16 GPs want to get rid of their jobs at the emergency room because of the Health Platform. One doctor has already quit, says Størseth. They warn the hospital to use the medical records solution. – I am genuinely concerned about the introduction to the hospital, says Størseth. Mona Størseth says several doctors now want to give up their duties at the emergency room at the expense of the Health Platform. Photo: Morten Andersen / news Several senior doctors at St. Olav have requested that the Health Platform not be introduced. – We believe we have enough indications that this will not go well. It will affect life, health and quality of life, says Mie Cappelen Skovholt, senior physician at the surgical clinic, St. Olav’s hospital. – You went out in the newspaper. Shouldn’t such matches be taken internally? – Because so many colleagues were concerned, we made an attempt at it. We wrote to management expressing our concern for patient safety, says Skovholt. Director: – Worked intensively on the solution – I share the doctors’ concerns and take them very seriously, says Grethe Aasved, director at St. Olav’s hospital. Aasved says the hospital’s focus is on patient safety and that action plans are therefore drawn up for various scenarios. This involves extensive data support and increased staffing. The goal is to be back in normal activity after four weeks. – Patient safety will quickly be challenged if this extends over time, says Aasved. – How confident does the hospital management feel about introducing the Health Platform? When it comes to the quality of the solution, we are in a completely different situation now than in ours. The solution was not good enough at the end of April. Since then, intensive work has been done on the solution. But the situation is continuously assessed, says Aasved. Grethe Aasved, director at St. Olav’s hospital, says there has been intensive work on the solution since its introduction in Trondheim municipality in April. Photo: Bent Lindsetmo / news – Political blunder The introduction of the Health Platform was adopted by a unanimous city council in Trondheim. Roald Arentz, group leader for Rødt in Trondheim, says he regrets that the party voted for the introduction of the Health Platform. The group leader believes that it must now be investigated what will be the consequences of discontinuing the introduction. – Joining such an expensive pilot project under the auspices of a private company, with as little political control as it appears from what we have, looks like a political blunder. FrP’s group leader Elin Marie Andreassen believes it was right to say yes to the introduction of the journal solution and still stands for this. – There will always be childhood diseases when a new, large system is introduced, says Andreassen. Roald Arentz, group leader for Rødt in Trondheim, regrets that he voted for the introduction of the Health Platform. Photo: Lars Erik Skjærseth / news Mona Berger (SV), acting mayor of Trondheim, says she is very worried about the situation at the emergency room. She has asked Health and Welfare Director Wenche Dehli to explain the situation and measures for improvements. Berger believes that it is the Health Platform that must clean up the problems. – Will it be appropriate to discontinue the Health Platform? – If, in the long term, the Health Platform fails to deliver good solutions that safeguard patient safety, ensure better information flow and provide better services, it must of course be looked at whether there are other systems that are better, says Berger. Mona Berger (SV), acting mayor of Trondheim, says it is the Health Platform that must now clean up. Photo: Bent Lindsetmo
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Massive opposition to the Health Platform at St. Olav’s intensive care unit – news Trøndelag
