A hospital trust in the UK failed to send out 24,000 letters to patients and GPs after they were lost in a new computer system. https://www.hcltech.com/trends-and-insights/computing-error-uk-healthcare-system-highlights-need-visibility

1. Computing errors in the UK
healthcare system highlights the
need for visibility
A hospital trust in the UK failed to send out 24,000 letters
to patients and GPs after they were lost in a new
computer system

2. Paperwork and documentation have always been one of the leading problems in the life
sciences and healthcare (LSH) industry.
In the latest incident, reported by the BBC, the Newcastle Hospitals trust failed to send
out 24,000 letters from doctors to patients, meaning some crucial tests and results may
have been missed by patients.

3. The letters required sign-off from senior doctors but were
placed in a folder in the new computer system that few
knew about. The problem is significant and has been
occurring since 2018.
Complaining it was slow and hard to use, a Newcastle
Hospitals source told the BBC that consultants had raised
issues about the electronic patient record system for
years, but it fell on deaf ears.

4. The negligence came to light after a routine inspection by
the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June and July and
subsequent concerns were raised by hospital employees.
Delays in sending out correspondence triggered a
subsequent review of the trust's consultants, and it was
revealed that most had unsent letters in their electronic
records.

5. CQC’s interim director of operations in the North, Sarah Dronsfield,
told the BBC: “We took immediate action to request further detail
from the trust to understand the extent to which people may be at
risk, and evidence of the steps being taken to review the impact on
patients, ensure people are safe and mitigate any risk of avoidable
delays in treatment going forward.

6. Optimizing EMR systems for visibility and cost effectiveness
With the right transformation and training, this significant problem could
have been avoided, with a range of other benefits.
For example, HCLTech worked with a US-based healthcare
organization, serving nearly 650,000 patients annually, to transform its
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) strategy. The organization wanted to
save costs and simplify by bringing multiple EMR solutions under one
umbrella,

7. In addition, HCLTech’s cloud and healthcare experts are now
building a healthcare platform aimed to leverage healthcare
claims where the processing time will be reduced from five days
to 10 seconds. Among the top features of this platform are
healthcare data interface engine, AI/ML coding engine, native fast
healthcare interoperability resources repository, business rules
engine, API-based digital claims submission, analytics
dashboard, cloud infrastructure and healthcare data protection
toolkit.

8. Thanks