NHS computer system problems
The Guardian’s Andy Beckett recently provided an interesting report on NHS’ computer system and its numerous issues.
The £12.7bn NHS computer programme is five years behind schedule and beset by criticism, viruses and fears over patient privacy. So should the world’s biggest IT project be scrapped?
Read the full story here.
Fumes released at Holiday World theme park
The Chicago Tribune reports a filter malfunction at Holiday World, a holiday-inspired water park in Indiana this past Saturday. Numerous people suffered from breathing problems due to the fumes:
A filter pump malfunction in a water ride at southern Indiana’s Holiday World caused fumes that sent 42 people to a hospital with breathing troubles.
Park president Will Koch (COOK) says the pump sent highly concentrated levels of bleach and muriatic acid into the Bahari River waters at Splashin’ Safari on Saturday.
Life guards immediately got people out of the water and closed off the area. Some customers required first aid, others drove to the hospital or were taken there by ambulance. The issue has since been fixed and the ride re-opened.
Cancer treatment errors discovered at Philadelphia VA hospital
The New York Times reports on serious trouble with a cancer care unit at a Philadelphia Veterans Affairs medical center. The unit is under investigation after it apparently performed erroneous procedures for years:
Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.
The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.
Numerous factors contributed to this, including computer/equipment problems:
From December 2006 to November 2007, the nuclear commission found, 16 patients received seed implants in Philadelphia even though computer interface problems prevented medical personnel from determining whether those treatments had been successful.
The Philadelphia Inquirer cites the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finding several problems:
The NRC probe cited several causes, including that no corrective action was taken when low doses were discovered following procedures. Often, however, no such post-implant checks were performed because of a computer glitch. There was also inadequate supervision of the physician involved in the procedures, the VA’s root-cause analysis into the problems revealed.
It will be interesting to keep track as the investigations proceed to see what really happened and what exact mixture of human and technological factors resulted in the unfortunate outcomes.
