Camden News - Royal Free Hospital | Computer Chaos

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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 3 July 2008

Hospital computer ‘chaos’

APPOINTMENTS at the Royal Free have been “lost in the system” following a fortnight of computer chaos at the Hampstead hospital.
The new Cerner care records system was supposed to speed up bookings by linking doctors, clinicians and consultants with an electronic database. The system is part of a move from paper medical records welcomed by health professionals on a national level but at the Royal Free it has been misfiring since its launch three weeks ago.
Some staff privately believe that, while the system has its merits, they have not been adequately trained to use it.
One insider said: “The system is to get rid of paper. Doctors and nurses do not trust it yet and are having to use paper on top of using Cerner, trebling the workload.
“We have IT running around like headless chickens. Since June 17, not one inpatient who needed an appointment after their stay in hospital has been booked. I have only been given one day training to use this complicated system, and the training model is different from the real thing.”
Another employee added: “The whole system has basically crashed. It has been 10 days of chaos. It is frustrating because staff had been told this was the bee’s knees of computer systems.”
The Royal Free was the first hospital in the country to introduce the computer system, provided by British Telecom, as part of a £12billion nationwide upgrade. A hospital spokeswoman said: “The implementation of the Cerner system is a massive change. While this has inevitably meant a few teething problems, the transfer from the old system to the new has gone better than expected.
“A small number of appointments have been mis-scheduled but this is being addressed and was to be expected.” Thousands of staff had been trained over the past six months, she added.

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