Hospitals across Queensland have been thrown into chaos after a massive computer outage, forcing doctors to retrieve patients’ paper records.
The outage affecting Queensland Health is said to have occurred after a system known as the Integrated Medical Record (ieMR), which contains patients’ digital records, went down at around 8am on Wednesday.
About 16 major hospitals in southeast Queensland have been affected by the closure, including Princess Alexandra, Gold Coast and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Hospitals across Queensland have been thrown into chaos after a massive computer outage hit an internal system leaving medical staff unable to access patients’ digitized medical records
They are believed to be connected to the ieMR system that provides hospital staff with digitized patient medical records.
Kieran Keyes, director of the hospital and health service, told the newspaper Courier mail the staff cannot access the service due to the disruption.
He said doctors have returned to using paper copies of patient records as health officials scramble to get the software up and running.
“The community can be assured that we have well-rehearsed alternative paper-based processes in place and that there is no impact on the patient care provided.” said Mr. Keyes.
A Queensland Health spokesperson told Ny Breaking Australia in a statement that hospitals have been affected after the system crashed.
“Where necessary, alternative paper-based processes are in place and all clinical services remain available to the public,” the spokesperson said.
‘No patient safety issues have been reported. Privacy and confidentiality procedures remain in effect.”
“We continue to work with the supplier to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.”
As a result of the outage, hospital staff have been forced to revert to paper copies of patients’ medical records
Major hospitals, including Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital (pictured), have been affected by the outage
The outage did not affect the Queensland Ambulance Service.
The problem is the latest in a series of problems the $1.2 billion ieMR program has faced since its rollout.
The system to fully digitize patients’ health and medical records should be operational in 2021, after first being proposed in 2014.
But software problems in 2019 delayed the technology’s planned rollout.