US VA e-patient records led to wrong Rx doses

The ranking member of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Veterans Affairs has called upon the Department for Veterans' Affairs to  provide an explanation about allegations that patients were exposed to  medical errors, including incorrect prescription drug dosages, due to  software problems. Rep Steve Buyer (Republican, Indiana) said: "I am  deeply concerned about the consequences on patient care that could have  resulted from this 'software glitch' and that mistakes were not  disclosed to patients who were directly affected." He also called for a  "forensic analysis of all pertinent records" to identify people who were  harmed and for an investigation of the software's testing and  implementation procedures.

Although this problem only affects patients at Veterans' Health  Administration facilities in the USA, the electronic patient record  system adopted there is a potential forerunner of a national e-health  database, which was a centerpoint of both leading candidates in the 2008  presidential election. In 2007, reported failings in the VA's drug  coverage were seized upon by critics of a Democrat proposal to copy the  pharmaceutical price negotiation model of the USA's largest  government-run health care program and apply it to the Medicare Part D  prescription drug program (Marketletters passim).