Dunedin Hospital is leading a national electronic prescribing project for hospitals, but it is progressing at a snail's pace because of bureaucratic hold-ups.
The Ministry of Health is taking years in some cases to grant legal dispensation for the electronic signatures required for the new system. This was despite the ministry directing all public hospitals to install e-prescribing by the end of 2014.
E-prescribing is happening in two Dunedin Hospital wards - 8a and 8b - the wards in which a national pilot was held in 2010 for which dispensation was received for electronic signing.
Dr Andrew Bowers, the Dunedin-based South Island Alliance information services medical director, said approval to extend the system to the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors was granted in August, nearly two years after being sought. It would be in place by Christmas, later than had been hoped.
Moving to a computer-based system eliminated many of the errors that happened when prescriptions were handwritten.
It was expected to avoid 70-80 deaths a year once fully in place.
In May, it was announced Southern would lead the national roll-out, with Dunedin Hospital first off the mark.
After visiting Dunedin in early June, Health Minister Tony Ryall said it would mean safer hospitals and fewer medication errors.
Dr Bowers was disappointed by the lack of progress: "Yes, it's causing frustration," he said.
However, he was encouraged by recent ministry changes that seemed to give the project new impetus.
A whole-of-New Zealand, or South Island-wide dispensation for e-signatures was needed, not piecemeal granting, he said.
The problem was legal, and the same issue caused years of delays getting the pilot under way.
The delays did not help ease staff into the new system.
Staff needed to see the system working, in particular the way it helped patients transfer between wards.
A passionate advocate of e-prescribing, Dr Bowers said it was not just deaths that resulted from medication error, but serious harm.
Dr Bowers said the project - which costs more than $4 million for the Southern board alone - would not get more expensive because of the delay and, if anything, costs reduced.
Ministry of Health national health IT board director Graeme Osborne said in an email work was under way to streamline the current dispensation process.
Mr Ryall, in a statement, said he had been advised the process was being streamlined.
The ministry had assured him the 2014 deadline could be met.
"I am very supportive of the national roll-out of electronic prescribing. It is a great example of clinical leadership making a difference for patients."
