The introduction of a new patient management computer system at Dunedin Hospital has been delayed again and will "undoubtedly" have cost overruns.
It was intended to start last November, but was then deferred to April and has now been put off until June.
Otago District Health Board chief operating officer Vivian Blake told the hospital advisory committee this week those involved in the project, including herself, had probably underestimated the impact of the changes with a new system.
The board has already approved cost increases for the project, which now has a budget of $3.4 million, $500,000 more than last year.
Some of the increased cost has been due to extending the OraCare system contract with iSOFT, which should have expired in November.
In his report to the committee, regional chief information officer Grant Taylor said the delay was not expected to add any significant cost to that revised budget.
Under the new system, authorised staff will be able to see all of a patient's referrals for assessment and treatment, appointments, inpatient activities and if they are on waiting lists.
Patients ringing the hospital with a query or to cancel multiple appointments should only have to make one telephone call, rather than telephoning each department.
Mrs Blake said there were issues with transferring data and they were testing to ensure data on the new system was accurate.
"The real issue is we want to make sure that when we go live we have minimised all the risks, so we are being a bit cautious."
However, staff had already received training for the new system and she was anxious to get it started as soon as possible.
The longer the wait, the less familiar staff would be when the new system came on line.
The delays had already caused cost overruns and there would "undoubtedly" be more, she said.
Earlier this year, Mr Taylor said the worst thing that could happen during the transfer of information from the old system to the new, planned to take place over a weekend, could be that it would take too long and not allow the system to "go live" at the expected time.
During the transfer process, a point of no return to the old system would be reached and if difficulties were encountered after that it could mean staff might have to do things by hand.
(A crash of the existing system, in early 2007, before Mr Taylor's employment, meant staff had to record some information manually for some days before the system was restored.)
