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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson said today (September 24) that the HA Head Office received a report earlier from the specialist outpatient clinic of Queen Elizabeth Hospital on an incident of printing process error. The pharmacy, while checking the prescription in accordance with established mechanism, discovered that the printout of the prescription was inconsistent with the prescription in the computer record. As the medication was dispensed according to the correct prescription as recorded in the electronic patient record in the system, the patient's prescription has not been affected.
Due to the uncommon occurrence of the incident, the HA Head Office immediately issued a safety alert to frontline clinical departments and pharmacies, reminding them to look out for similar occurrences.
The HA Information Technology Services (HAITS) is investigating the incident and has commenced a random check of various clinical information systems prioritised according to risk assessment. All reported printing error cases will be analysed to identify the root cause of the incident.
HAITS has initially ascertained the integrity of all the electronic patient records in the Clinical Management System and suspects the cause to be related to printing software signaling errors.
HA has reminded frontline staff again the proper procedures in the use of printers including regular shutting down to eliminate residue memories. HA will follow up with the concerned supplier on the problem.
The HA spokesperson reiterated that clinicians and pharmacies will need to check patient prescription according to established protocols. There is so far no adverse patient reports related to the incident.
Ends/Saturday, September 24, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:11
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