"Computer problems" force docs back to paper charts at Memorial Hospital - From June 11 until at least June 24?

More on the wonders and dependability of commercial health IT, as implemented in hospitals, which are generally an IT backwaters:

Computer problems force docs back to paper charts at Memorial Hospital

Published: June 17, 2013 

BELLEVILLE (Illinois) — Computer problems have caused Memorial Hospital (http://www.memhosp.com/Pages/Home.aspx) staff back to the old days of using paper to chart patients' treatments.

The hospital's computer system, Meditech, went down late on Tuesday, June 11 and is not expected to be fully restored until at least Monday, June 24, according to the hospital. In the meantime, staff will be recording patients' medical records unto traditional paper charts.

"While the duration of this down time is unfortunate, all hospital services continue utilizing the backup process we have in place for occasions such as this," Memorial President Mark Turner said in a prepared statement. "I am extremely proud of the way our employees and medical staff have pulled together to maintain quality care and patient safety."

Once the system is up and running again, the information from the paper charts will be transferred into each patient's electronic medical record. The same standards for patient confidentiality and safety are being met, according to the hospital.

The computer problems are believed to result from upgrades added to the system in preparation for a major upgrade in July.

"The duration of this down time is unfortunate?"  This mission-critical system went down June 11 and won't be fully restored until June 24?  How is this even possible?  What, exactly, were their maximal-uptime, redundancy, disaster recovery and business continuity strategies?  Was there a natural disaster in that area I don't know about?

Regarding the hospital President's statement that:

"I am extremely proud of the way our employees and medical staff have pulled together to maintain quality care and patient safety."

I would translate that to read:

"Our IT incompetence is all on you, clinicians.  You're liable for any patient harm that results in the messy transitions from IT to paper, and back from paper to IT."

-- SS

Addendum - a question I've asked before - if everything is just fine, business as usual, with no safety impediments after reverting to paper due to emergency ... then why spend $100 million+ on EHRs?

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2013/06/17/2660472/computer-problems-force-docs-back.html#storylink=cpyA

Don't Worry, Your Records are Safe - Part IV

At past posts "Don't Worry, Your Electronic Medical Records Are Getting Safer With Every Passing Day", "Another Episode of "But Don't Worry, Your Records are Safe..." and "Still More Electronic Medical Data Chaos, Pandemonium, Bedlam, Tumult and Maelstrom: But Don't Worry, Your Data is Secure", I wrote on the issue of medical record security.

Security from prying eyes, that is.

I didn't include security of data from placement into /dev/null (that is, destruction).

There's this email, received by East coast physicians not long ago from a claims processing company (identities redacted):

Dear Provider,

As you may be aware, we experienced a significant problem with our computer system during a software maintenance function on XX/XX/2010.

In addition to the network issue, we discovered that the redundant back-up systems were not operating as reported.  ["Reported" when, and by whom, one wonders? - ed.]

We had two on-site back-up systems that were monitored daily and which were historically reported as successful.  We have since learned that these internal back-up functions were not operating as reported and the on-site back-ups were not entirely successful. [Meaning, they were not successful, period - ed.]

Also, our software vendor, [major EHR vendor], was providing two additional remote back-ups on servers located in [city, state] and [city, state]. [EHR vendor] has informed us that these remote back-ups were not initiated as represented.  [Meaning, they screwed up - ed.]  Therefore, when our computer network system malfunctioned, there was no readily available back-up data on-site or at the remote redundant back-up servers.

Please be aware that we have replaced hardware components and were able to recreate the data bases and we are billing.  However, we are still unable to access data that was stored on our servers prior to XX/XX/2010.

[EHR vendor] is diligently working to retrieve the data from the hard drives, back-up tapes, and through other means.  Please be assured that all files will be restored, if the files cannot be fully restored electronically, then they will be fully restored manually.

At [our claims processing company], we are truly saddened by the fact that we have disappointed clients and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience experienced by you, your staff, or your patients.

We have always appreciated your loyalty as a valued client and will continue to keep you informed of the progress.

The levels of information technology and data management incompetence exhibited in this message are stunning. 

The confidence it imparts regarding the safety of our critical medical data from destruction, and its availability when truly needed, is less than stellar.

A major problem is that the health IT industry has no accountability. 

I believe the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act needs to be amended to become the "Food, Drug, Cosmetic, and Cybernetic" Act.

-- SS