The joint record system Helseplattformen was introduced three weeks ago at St. Olav’s hospital. The aim is for all parts of the healthcare system to be able to use the same system, so that all patient information is immediately available to GPs, nursing homes and hospitals at the same time. But the computer system has led to major challenges for GPs. They simply cannot understand much of the information that comes from the hospital. – The epicrises look like a Jan Erik Vold poem, says Julie Nesheim, GP at Ila medical office in Trondheim. An epicrisis is a short summary of treatment or examinations a patient has carried out. No overview Nesheim usually receives information from the hospital in a consolidated, clear document. For the past three weeks, the information letters from the hospital have been both completely blank and full of incomprehensible text. Sometimes she has received the same letter up to six times. – In such cases, I don’t have time to read everything, and then I can miss important information, she says. Nesheim feels that there has been a drastic decrease in the number of information letters she receives from the hospital after the introduction. She has 1,500 patients and on Wednesday only received one epicrisis during the working day. – That cannot be true. This has become a crisis of confidence. I feel that we cannot trust the information we receive. We don’t have an overview, and that affects the patients, she says. This is what the epic crisis Nesheim got on Wednesday morning looks like. Cannot update the patient’s medication Nesheim has a patient who has just been admitted to psychiatry. The home service asks her to update the medicine list for the person in question, but she has not received the epicrisis from the hospital. – When I can’t update my patient’s medicine list because I haven’t had an epicrisis, it’s a problem for patient safety, she says. She is most concerned that the problems with the Health Platform affect the weakest patients. Those who cannot convey information from the hospital themselves – such as the demented and mentally ill, says Nesheim. Nesheim was at a meeting between the GPs, St. Olav and the Health Platform on Tuesday evening. After the meeting, she became more worried. – The meeting starts with the health director at St. Olav informing that everything regarding epicrises and e-mails is in order. Then it seems to me that we have two completely different perceptions of reality, she says. Nesheim describes missing and incomprehensible epicrises as a problem for patient safety. Photo: Marthe Svendsen / news Adresseavisen has previously discussed GPs’ concerns. Problems at St. Olav At St. Olav, there have been problems with epicrises that do not end up with the right actors and cumbersome processes for medication management. Employees at diagnostic imaging and secretaries have also had major challenges after the introduction of the Health Platform. Hospital director Grethe Aasved last week sent a report of concern to the State Administrator. This is because she is afraid that it could threaten patient safety if the GPs do not receive information from the hospital. St. Olav cannot attend an interview on Wednesday. Aasved has responded in writing to questions from news. – Have the errors with epicrisis and e-mails been corrected? – Unfortunately, we do not have a full overview of the situation and are very worried, writes the hospital director. Grethe Aasved, managing director at St. Olav’s hospital, has not had the opportunity to be interviewed on Wednesday. Photo: Bent Lindsetmo / news – Why did you say in the meeting on Tuesday that it had been corrected, when it clearly is not? – That was the information we had from the Health Platform at the time. Problems with e-mails have been known since the hospital introduced the Health Platform. Error corrections have been made on several occasions, but feedback from GPs and other referrers has made us concerned that there are still challenges connected to the sending of e-mails. Have asked for a complete overview The hospital does not have the complete overview of how many epicrisis are deficient and which have not arrived. – And it is serious. We must get control of the situation. We have now asked for a complete overview of messages that have not arrived, and we will ensure that these are sent out in another way as quickly as possible. – The GP calls this a crisis of confidence, and says she cannot trust the information she receives from the hospital. What do you think about it? – GPs can rely on the e-mails they receive from the hospital. The problem in this case is that it seems that some e-mails from the hospital do not reach GPs and other partners. She points out that the e-mails contain important information for GPs. – We therefore share the GP’s concern and take the situation very seriously. We have therefore sent a message to the State Administrator about the matter. The hospital director further writes that she agrees that it goes beyond patient safety that the GP is not allowed to update the medicine lists. – If this is due to the GP not having received information from the hospital after discharge, this is serious, writes Aasved, who describes it as demanding for her as hospital director to have an overview in this situation of errors, error corrections and different information from actors. The Health Platform: – Corrected in the Health Platform, the introduction at the hospital is described as successful. Chairman Helge Garåsen believes that this still stands: – In relation to the complexity involved in this, it has gone well, says Garåsen to news. On Monday, they wrote that some GP offices have received empty or incomplete messages after St. Olav introduced the Health Platform. The health platform said that two of the systems used by GPs have problems receiving epicrisis, but that they can be read in a PDF version. – This is now considered to have been clarified after good dialogue with the GPs and their suppliers, the Health Platform wrote on its pages on Monday. news has spoken to another GP who received this epicrisis. Photo: Grethe Thobroe / news Will be resolved quickly In an interview with news on Wednesday, Garåsen says that the Health Platform did not know before the introduction that some of the systems GPs use cannot talk to the Health Platform. He assures that no epicrisis will be lost. – We said on Monday that they were in the process of being fixed, he says. Garåsen says the problem is complex, but that it will be solved within a few days. – How serious is it that GPs perceive the situation to be so broken that they use such strong words as crisis of confidence? – What is broken is that it takes longer for GPs to get the correct information. The most boring thing here is dealing with the patients, who may not be followed up as quickly and efficiently as otherwise, he says. Chairman Helge Garåsen describes the introduction as successful. Photo: Erland Knutsen / news Critical of Helseplattformen’s information GP Julie Nesheim reacts strongly to Helseplattformen’s announcement on its pages on Monday that the problem had been fixed. – No, it’s not, she says. Nesheim wonders if it is an expression of embellishment of the truth, or if the Health Platform lacks an overview of the situation. – In that case, both parts are very worrying and weaken trust, she says.
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