Human error and overlooking a single checkbox is being blamed for a major delay in test results for 62 patients under the care of a Saskatoon physician.
eHealth Saskatchewan officials couldn’t disclose which doctor’s office wasn’t properly receiving faxed electronic health record results but that the delays occurred between July 2015 and May of this year.
According to officials, medical imaging results such as ultrasounds were the type of records not being faxed.
All 62 patients affected have been informed of the issue including five individuals where there was a potential for follow-up. Based on further follow-ups, officials say no patient harm occurred and that the error was caught as part of a routine audit of faxing reports.
“There’s a number of things that we’ve done and we’ve worked really hard with our partners in Saskatoon to review and put some mistake proofing in place so we’ve got some manual checks that are now in place,” said Denise June, vice-president of the Culture Collaboration and Innovation Division for eHealth Saskatchewan.
“We’re looking at putting in some additional electronic audits as well as alerts, we will be electronically alerted if faxes are not sent in the future.”
Officials say the results at all times were also being stored in the electronic health record and available to the physician through a secured website called eHR Viewer.
Patients are also reminded to follow-up with their health care provider, if they’re worried about a result.
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