Cerner problems ‘reported before NOC go-live’

A problem with appointment bookings that hit Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital when it went live with its new Cerner system had been reported previously by a London hospital, according to a television report.

The problem resulted in some patients not receiving appointments and others presenting when the hospital was not expecting them. It also resulted in the recording of a Serious Untoward Incident – an official notice of a failure that could disrupt patient care.

An investigation by Channel 4 and Computer Weekly screen last night found that a report had been written by consultants, Tribal Secta, about similar experiences at Newham Hospital, east London.

The programme makers claim the report had been submitted to the authorities a month before Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital (NOC) in Oxford went live with the system and included a recommendation that its findings should be shared. NOC say they did not see it.

Connecting for Health said the agency did not know about the report specifically but added that much learning and experience gained at Newham was incorporated into the planning for the NOC deployment.

It said the system was thoroughly reviewed before implementation and NOC staff visited Newham. The new system was now working well at the NOC.

Professor Martyn Thomas, visiting professor in software engineering at Oxford University, told the programme the finding was “alarming.”

“If there are known problems they should be communicated very rapidly to other users of the system,” said Professor Thomas, who is a member of the group of 23 academics that has raised questions about the National Programme for IT, of which the NOC implementation was part.

He added that where there were safety hazards it was particularly incumbent on people involved to make sure the defect information and fixes were made available to all users of the system.