Austin Hospital in Australia has admitted Thursday to making the mistake of incorrectly declaring that the 200 patients of general practitioners have died, when in fact they were very much alive. According to ABC News, the patients at the Austin Hospital in Australia had just been discharged instead of dead. The patients were in fact just discharged the previous day.
Because of the mistake, the Austin Hospital in Australia, one of Melbourne's largest hospital networks, apologized on Thursday.
According to The Guardian, the notifications were sent out by Austin Health on Jul. 30. The notices were made through fax, and were reportedly part of an automated IT system which informs doctors if their patients have already been discharged from hospital.
An Austin Health spokeswoman addressed the mistake of Austin Hospital in Australia.
She said, 'In the process of changing the template which notifies a GP of his or her patient's death, the changes were saved to the standard [discharge] template.'
She added, 'We immediately corrected the error upon its identification.'
The Austin Hospital in Australia, according to Reuters, is located in the country's second most populous city in Melbourne.
ABC News reports that the notices were supposed to tell the doctors that their patient had been released the day before.
Austin Health's apology included blaming the mistake on human error.
Apparently, the notices from the Austin Hospital in Australia were the result of inadvertent change to the templates which the hospital sends to doctors once their patient had been discharged, according to a statement made by an operator from Austin Health.
A statement by the hospital said, 'We apologised unreservedly to affected clinics that, for the most part, were very understanding about the error.'
It continued, 'This was a human error. In the process of changing the template which notifies a GP of his or her patient's death, the changes were saved to the standard template.'
Reports by the Herald Sun sought to confirm if at least one doctor notified a patient's family that they had died, but the hospital did not reply.
The hospital's spokeswoman added that the error was not connected to resourcing. It has also not affected patient care in any way.
Meanwhile, according to the Australian Medical Association, the error made by the Austin Hospital in Australia was unacceptable. The association also called it "potentially distressing to family doctors".
Dr Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association's Victoria branch said many doctors would have been distressed.
He said, 'Many of these GPs have long relationships with these patients and their families. It would have been distressing to receive such a fax, especially relating to the unexpected death of children and teenagers.'
He added, 'It is unacceptable for failings like this to happen. IT issues must not undermine patient care or trust in the Victorian healthcare system.'
An opposition lawmaker on the other hand called the error "symptomatic of an overworked health system."
Victoria's opposition leader, Labor's Daniel Andrews, said the mistake by the Austin Hospital in Australia was a sign of an overstretched health system in crisis.
He said, 'It is unacceptable that an error like that was made.'
According to The Guardian, this incident from the Austin Hospital in Australia was already the second error made by Austin Health in five months.
The first was in April when Fairfax media reported Austin Health's new computerised booking system caused extremely sick patients to miss their crucial specialist appointments.
David Davis, Victoria's health minister meanwhile said that those describing the health system as struggling were "ridiculous".
Davis said, 'The Coalition government has increased funding for Austin Health by $98.1m since Daniel Andrews was health minister under the previous Labor government.'
Austin Hospital in Australia already contacted the GP clinics affected the same morning that their error was made and the notifications were sent out telling the patients died.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
