IT failure disrupts patient care ‘at number of trusts’

An IT failure has left clinicians at ‘a number of trusts’ which use the Cerner Millennium system unable to access patient records or write discharge summaries, according to an internal trust email seen by HSJ.

The email, sent to staff at Barts Health Trust this afternoon, said there was a “performance issue” with Cerner PowerChart which was affecting “a number of other trusts”.

The Powerchart programme is the part of the Cerner Millennium electronic patient record system used by clinicians to process document notes, request tests, view blood tests and scan reports.

At least 13 trusts in the English NHS are known to use the Cerner Millennium system but it is not yet clear how many trusts aside from Barts have been affected.

One clinician told HSJ the outage was “overwhelmingly unsafe” for patients.

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Source: HSJ, 11 October 2022