Surgeons critical of EPAS electronic records for SA health system
Updated
Surgeons say they are glad the South Australian Government is putting on hold a rollout of its electronic patient records system.
The Enterprise Patient Administration System (EPAS) has cost more than $400 million so far but only been implemented in a few of the state's hospitals.
The aim had been to give ready access to a patient's records across the health system.
The medical records system used bedside computers to record patients' information and treatment details.
Royal Australian College of Surgeons chairman Peter Subramaniam says using an electronic system is desirable but EPAS has not been functioning properly.
"It's not an intuitive system," he said.
"An example would be it takes five clicks to actually start a single episode.
"If you spend a few minutes talking to the patient getting a history, because of privacy issues it logs off automatically so that means that the data entry is lost."
Health Minister Jack Snelling has defended the technology issues.
"IT systems are notoriously fraught with difficulty and that's no less the case in health," he said.
Nursing Federation official Elizabeth Dabars hopes the problems ultimately will be overcome.
"We still welcome and support the introduction of a system, we just need to make sure that whatever system is ultimately implemented is indeed in the best interest of patients and patient care," she said.
While the system is not being rolled out to any more sites, it still will be used at Port Augusta, Noarlunga and the Repatriation Hospitals.
The South Australian Government says its focus now is on finalising the system before the opening of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Topics: health-policy, healthcare-facilities, doctors-and-medical-professionals, states-and-territories, government-and-politics, sa, adelaide-5000
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