Queensland’s public hospitals are dealing with multimillion-dollar blowouts to install an integrated electronic medical record that clinicians say is flawed and putting patients at risk.
Many Hospital and Health Services are floundering under the booming cost of the health department’s integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) project, while patients at some public hospitals have been affected by increased elective surgery wait times.
The ieMR, the core of Queensland Health’s Digital Hospital project, uploads all patient data to a centralised medical record that is accessible by all doctors and clinicians, across any hospital in the state; however, a Brisbane Times investigation found serious privacy and patient safety concerns with the software.