The Australian reported that State of Victoria's health IT HealthSMART program aimed at replacing the information systems and technology running Victoria's hospitals and health clinics will not be completed by June 2009 as promised, which was already two years later than the originally promised completion date of June 2007. Victoria's Auditor-General Des Pearson has found that 57% of the HealthSMART A$323 million budget has been spent, but that only 25% of the project has been completed. He blamed much of the problem on over-ambitious project objectives.
The Auditor-General also noted that it is not known how much more will be needed to complete the project (although at least an additional A$61 would be be needed to subsidize health care providers until the system was up and running), nor what the new estimated completion date would be. Surprisingly (or maybe not), he also said that Victoria's Department of Human Services has not yet informed the government that the system was going to be late.
Australia is not the only one with health IT problems.
Over in the UK, ComputerWeekly has said that there have been problems with the NPfIT new Choose and Book appointment system. According to the UK National Health Service (NHS), "Choose and Book is a national electronic referral service which gives patients a choice of place, date and time for their first outpatient appointment in a hospital or clinic. Patients can choose their hospital or clinic, and then book their appointment to see a specialist with a member of the practice team at the GP surgery, or at home by telephone or over the internet at a time more convenient to them."
Unfortunately, according to ComputerWeekly, a glitch in the Choose and Book software meant that nearly 350 patients received wrong information about appointments for about a week. Some people got incorrect appointments while others didn't get told of their appointments.
A planned upgrade to the Choose and Book software was postponed until the reason for the problem was discovered.
