St. Olav’s hospital has notified the Norwegian Health Authority about the matter. – As a hospital director, I take this very seriously. It is difficult to know that patient safety may be at risk, and it is very worrying when we have serious incidents and deaths that may be due to heavy work pressure or the introduction of the Health Platform. This is what managing director Grethe Aasved at St. Olav writes in an e-mail to news on Friday evening. At St. Olav, several incidents have been registered where it cannot yet be ruled out that the Health Platform is a contributing factor, says hospital director Grethe Aasved. Photo: Gorm Kallestad Stopped treatment County doctor Jan Vaage has read the notice from St. Olav. In December, a patient was admitted to hospital to be investigated for a low blood percentage and a possible haemorrhage, says the county doctor. This was a patient at risk of stroke, and he was therefore on blood thinners. Because of the possible bleeding, hospital staff stopped the patient’s use of blood thinners until further notice. The examinations showed that there were no signs of bleeding. The patient was sent home. Two days later, the patient, who was in his 80s, was admitted with a major stroke. – The patient died from this, says Vaage. Found little information When the patient had been re-admitted to the hospital, staff were unable to find documentation in the patient record about the stay at the hospital a few days earlier. According to Vaage, very little information was then found in the medical record about what had happened in the days before and after admission. It did not say whether the patient had been put on blood-thinning medication again, as the patient should have been. Because there has been such poor documentation, we don’t quite know what has happened and what went wrong, says Vaage. The patient should have been put on blood thinners, Vaage believes. – Whether it is due to the problems with the Health Platform is difficult to answer. But what we see is that they have not been able to document properly, and that probably has a clear connection with the Health Platform, says Vaage. Problems with the new records system In November, the new records system Helseplattformen was introduced at St. Olav. There have been many challenges since the Health Platform was put into use: Referrals and epicrises do not get to where they should be The system makes it difficult to handle medicines Creates cumbersome work for doctors, secretaries and employees in several departments Critical errors for those working with radiology examinations The more new errors are reported than the health platform is able to solve Employees are overworked and tired The hospital director at St. Olav has notified the State Administrator because she has been concerned about patient safety in connection with the introduction. – After Go-live (when the Health Platform was put into use, journ.anm.) we have registered a significant increase in the number of reported patient-related incidents. There have been no recorded incidents where patients have died as a result of the Health Platform. But incidents have been recorded where it cannot yet be ruled out that the Health Platform is a contributing factor, writes Aasved. She further writes that the hospital notifies relatives in the event of unwanted incidents. – They have also been notified in this case. Possible serious consequences of the Health Platform It is too early to conclude that the death is due to errors in the Health Platform, Vaage also says. – But it is a serious matter and it is quite obvious that the Health Platform has had an impact on the fact that little has been documented. In the notice, St. Olav writes that there has been insufficient summary notes, patient information and insufficient information about what medicines the patient should take at home, according to the county doctor. In the notice, the hospital links the missing information to the Health Platform, says Vaage. – When will you know if the death is due to an error in the Health Platform? – It is hard to say. The case just came to us and we have not allocated it to a case manager yet, says Vaage. – How serious is this matter? – Basically, we see this as a possible serious consequence of the Health Platform, says Vaage. – This matter will receive special follow-up in addition to general follow-up by the Health Platform. But it is too early to say that this sequence of events gives rise to a greater general concern for the Health Platform, says Vaage.
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The county doctor links the death to the Health Platform – news Trøndelag
