Electronic records issue delaying gynecological referrals on P.E.I.

Health P.E.I. is alerting the public about an issue with electronic medical records causing delays for hundreds ofgynecological referrals.

According to Health P.E.I. the delays are due to a data entry issue involving the newly implemented electronic record system.

In late September, staff and physicians in the gynecology clinic at The Mount in Charlottetown noticed issues.

"Consults that were entered into the system by a primary care provider were not making their way to the specialist," saidDr.Michael Gardam, CEO at Health P.E.I.

"This has been going on for a few months. So what we have been doing since then is going back manually through all the consults and seeing those that were particularly urgent."

In total, about 700 referrals were found to have this error. Health P.E.I. has reviewed the impacted files and identified 15 referrals as needing to be prioritized for appointments. These patients have been seen or scheduled to be seen by a gynecologist by no later than Nov.4, Gardam said.

"Right now we are not aware of anybody who has been harmed by this, but it does, however, point out a really important problem with this system which is now currently being fixed," he said.

"We're also going back and looking through all consults to see if there are any others which might have been delayed."

Patients whose referrals have been affected will be notified directly by regular mail and the letters will be posted within the next week.