Emergency room staff at Kelowna General Hospital are raising concerns about computer downtimes, scheduled or otherwise, saying they can potentially be unsafe.
“We dread downtimes,” said a KGH emergency health-care worker.
The health-care worker spoke to Global News anonymously out of fear of repercussions.
“It’s frustrating for all of us and it feels chaotic,” they said.
On June 2, scheduled downtime will take place at hospitals across the health region as necessary upgrades are made to computer software — in this case, a clinical information system called MEDITECH.
“We basically lose our ability to access any patient records on the computer … so that includes information about previous visits, past health problems, as well as laboratory results,” the health-care worker said.
“We’re flying blind.”
The health-care worker said staff have been told the upcoming downtime could last up to eight hours.
“There’s definitely going to be less efficiency, more potential to miss things or potential for error and everything takes longer because the information is out of your fingertips,” they said.
“So it definitely does create the potential for an unsafe situation, even though we do our best to mitigate that.”
In an email to Global News, Interior Health said the planned upgrades are necessary to make the system as safe, secure and resilient as possible.
“This is a critical enhancement to modernize the infrastructure MEDITECH depends on that will reduce the risk of unplanned interruptions to the system in the future,” stated Lindsay Taberner, KGH’s executive director.
“We appreciate that the scheduled system downtime to make these improvements impacts the usual workflows of our physicians and staff, which is why it is happening overnight when our facilities are typically less busy, Taberner said.
“Our priority is to complete these upgrades as quickly as possible.”
While the upgrades are necessary, staff would like to see some type of a backup system so that they don’t have to merely rely on paper charting.
“Things might be quieter in the wards but they’re not quiet in emergency … emergency departments can be very chaotic even at four in the morning and it’s very difficult to keep track of patients without an electronic tracking board,” the health-care worker said.
“Banks don’t really have downtime. Certainly air traffic controllers in airports don’t have downtime.”
Earlier this year, a code grey was issued at KGH when a critical systems failure caused the entire computer system to go down for four hours, prompting staff to go old school.
IHA stated then it would look closer at possible improvements.
“That is absolutely part of our internal review process, looking at, are there opportunities to improve, what would be the things that we could look at within our current setting to make improvements to our system,” Taberner said on March 7.
But the health-care worker said nothing has changed and they are renewing calls for IHA to create a proper Plan B.
“We have expressed concerns to the health authority, and I sometimes feel like we’re not being heard,” the health-care worker said.
“I’d be interested to hear their side of it but it’s been very frustrating for us and this happens time and time again and brought up again and again.”
Taberner stated that IHA is aware of the concerns raised by KGH clinicians related to the upcoming extended downtime and is working with them to address those specific concerns.
She added that additional resources and staff may be brought in to bolster existing teams and provide support patient care.
Comments