A problem has been identified in iSoft’s iPM patient administration software, which, under certain circumstances, can lead to patients’ electronic records not being correctly updated and records becoming unviewable by NHS staff.
Efforts are now underway to try and identify effected patient records, restore missing data and put the problem right. Official guidance has also been issued to NHS users last week to advise them how to avoid the problem in the future.
In a statement to EHI Connecting for Health said of the iPM problem: "We have become aware of a data process issue with the iSoft’s iPM PAS system."
Under certain circumstances, staff exiting a record in iPM without using the ‘close’ function can lead to data being saved on the database in an ‘interim’ status – making any amends to the record unavailable to subsequent users.
Although the data concerned is not clinical EHI understands that consequences of misplaced and partial patient administration records have included patients showing up for booked clinic appointments only to find the hospital has no record of their appointment, and patients not appearing on waiting lists for hospital treatment.
The problem exists in implementations of iPM across all three of the NHS clusters – North West and West Midlands, Eastern and North East – for which iSoft is sub-contracted to provide software under the £6.2 billion National Programme for IT.
To date there have been over 40 implementations of iPM in the North West and West Midlands cluster where CSC is LSP and another six in the two Accenture clusters.
A source familiar with the problem said that the iPM system gave the user no indication that a record they had amended would not be properly updated and saved. Another source told EHI "The records affected are not clinical but do include appointment information."
Colin Bexley, chief information officer for West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority, told EHI: "I can tell you that we (West Midlands South SHA) and all potentially affected organisations within the geographical area covered by WMSSHA are aware of this issue, and action is being taken to address it."
Birmingham University Hospital NHS Trust confirmed that it was experiencing the problem, which had affected approximately a 1,000 patient records at the trust. "UHB can confirm that we have observed the situation that you described," the trust told EHI. "Under 1000 records were affected (or less than 0.01% of the records in our instance of the database.) The data is all administrative and not clinical."
UHB added: "Rectification of the problem is under way both at the trust and at CSC Alliance. Guidance to users on how to avoid creating ‘interim’ records was issued. A software fix is being applied to our instance of the PAS this weekend."
The Birmingham trust, which is one of the first acute trusts to implement iPM under NPfIT, said that rectification work had been given priority "so that impact on patients and the trust were minimised. We expect to have completed the rectification by the end of next week."
A spokesperson for iSoft told EHI: "We have taken the issue seriously and fixed it quickly and this is a permanent solution." The fix provided is in the form of a patch for LSPs and trusts to implement.
A spokesperson for Accenture, the local service provider for the Eastern and North East, two of the three clusters affected, told EHI that they became aware of the problem last week. "We have since instituted procedures to address this risk as a priority, and we are running scripts to identify any data that has been affected."
CfH said that all affected trusts in the three clusters have now been made aware of the problem and been given instructions on how to avoid it. "Investigations have revealed that a very small number of patient records may have been effected and all parties are working to remove this issue from the application and to identify and correct any data that has already been affected."
The DH agency said that all the PAS records data involved was "non-clinical" and "our priority at this time is to ensure that any impact for patients and staff is minimised."
In a subsequent statement to EHI the agency added: "We are running programmes to identify any data that has been saved in this interim status so that its status can be immediately corrected."