A serious deficiency in the Ministry of Health. It is feared that dozens of patients who were released from hospitalization in the last few weeks received the wrong medications after hospitalization. The Ministry of Health first heard about the problem ten days ago and are still trying to find out what its scope was and when exactly it started.
It is estimated that there are dozens of patients who were affected by it, and also that it is not a cyber attack because the fault is horizontal in many hospitals.
As of now the fault has been located and stopped.
Medicines.
Malfunction at the Ministry of Health: patients received drug prescriptions from other patients.
(illustration), photo: Getty Images
The Ministry of Health informed us today about the unusual malfunction that originated in a computer system used by several hospitals (Camelion).
As part of the malfunction, it was found that an incorrect list of regular medications was entered in the discharge letters of patients who were discharged in the last ten days and up to two months ago.
The Kamilion system is a medical record of treatments given in hospitals, including laboratory tests and imaging.
However, the problem was discovered in the list of medications given during a medical visit or discharge only.
The Ministry of Health stated that "the extent of the defect is under investigation and will be reported to the public as soon as it becomes known. The Ministry of Health is examining and checking and will update the public as necessary."
The problem is currently being investigated by the "Elad Systems" company that is responsible for the system, which is used by the government and general hospitals.
This is not the system used by the health insurance funds.
Patients take other people's medicines
"Actually, we discovered that during a patient's hospitalization, especially a repeat hospitalization, other patients' medications are copied into his medical record. So in a medical visit or a discharge letter before discharge home, medications that do not belong to the same patient can appear. This is a very complex malfunction. We are in the midst of an investigation and an attempt to understand the scope of the malfunction And what are the implications," says an official at the Ministry of Health.
Ministry of Health.
Checking the fault, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"The malfunction was reported to us by one of the medical institutions who discovered it himself. We do not know how many cases there was indeed damage or that a patient received the wrong medication, whether in the hospital or after discharge. This is part of the investigation process. The company is working with the hospitals to locate patients."
For this reason, the Ministry of Health and the hospitals have not yet contacted patients who are suspected to have been affected by the malfunction.
Verify immediately with the attending physician
The Ministry of Health recommends following the malfunction to any patient who has been discharged from hospitalization in the last two months, especially when it comes to re-hospitalization, to consult with the clinic staff, family doctor or nurse and make sure that there is a match between the list of medications on discharge and the list of medications in the health insurance fund.
"If there are new medications, verify with the attending physician and the nurse that it is really a medication that was recommended upon discharge and was not mixed in there by mistake," says the source at the Ministry of Health.
"The significant and essential concern is that if the wrong medicine was given to the patient, it could cause a complication for the patient. The worst case scenario is that a patient received a medicine that he should not have received."
In some hospitals, they are now trying through the risk management departments to locate the patients and make sure that no harm was caused by taking the wrong drugs.
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