In June, UnitedHealth Group issued a voluntary recall for emergency department electronic health record software because of a bug that led to missing physician notes, according to a document filed with FDA and posted in July, Bloomberg reports.
About the Software
Picis — a Wakefield-Mass.-based company that UnitedHealth acquired in 2010 — developed the Picis ED PulseCheck software. The software is used in 35 facilities in more than 20 states including:
- California;
- Florida; and
- New Jersey.
Details of the Error
Certain versions of the Picis ED PulseCheck software contained a software bug that caused doctors’ notes about patient prescriptions to drop out of their files, Bloomberg reports. The recall began June 21.
Kyle Christensen, a spokesperson for UnitedHealth, said that each facility was notified and received a software fix. He added that there were no reports of patient harm related to the error.
In a statement Christensen said, “Picis completed a routine software update that resolved an issue in specific releases where some physician notes entered manually on a prescription were not included when the prescription was issued.” He added, “Picis reported the resolution of this issue to clients and FDA in the normal course of business.”
Reaction to the Error
Experts say the Picis recall highlights how little information is disclosed about such issues as the federal government continues to push the transition to EHRs, according to Bloomberg.
Ross Koppel, adjunct professor of sociology and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that while medical device manufacturers are required to report safety issues to FDA, EHR developers are not.
Koppel — who has studied health IT errors said, “It’s admirable that the vendor reported this, but realize that this is one of the more obvious errors,” adding, “Most are not as obvious and go unreported” (Robertson, Bloomberg, 9/10).
Date: September 10, 2013