CEO blames IT system for diagnostics slump

A chief executive has blamed his trust’s electronic patient record for the collapse of its diagnostic performance.

Professor Clive Kay told his board at King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust that the implementation of Epic in October 2023 had contributed to the organisation dropping to the bottom tenth of national rankings for diagnostic waiting times.

At last week’s public meeting, Professor Kay said the trust had fallen from being ranked 11th-best nationally for diagnostic waits to 11th from the bottom.

“As good as Epic is, the radiology elements of Epic were really very challenging for colleagues,” he told his board.

Electronic patient record systems from USA-based Epic have a reputation for having a lot of functionality, but being particularly expensive.    

While the rollout did not affect the range of diagnostic tests the trust was able to carry out, it caused significant disruption, including data migration discrepancies that affected the accuracy and availability of migrated records, as well as a number of manual workarounds required.

While no patient harm has been identified, a review is underway which includes a structured harm assessment.

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Source: HSJ, 19 September 2025

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