UK pharma supplier put into special measures after new IT system causes almost 10,000 missed medicine deliveries
- Reference: 1621337345
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/18/healthcare_at_home_cqc/
- Source link:
Or says regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in a [1]report published at the end of last week stating that HAH, which supports around 150,000 patients each year, had introduced new information systems in October 2020.
"These had not been thoroughly risk assessed and tested and resulted in avoidable harm to some patients," the report said. "This meant that delivery dates for medicines were missed and patients didn't get their essential medication required to treat their health condition or maintain their health, on time. Some patients' conditions deteriorated and they had to be admitted to hospital, whilst others experienced psychological trauma because of the uncertainty of not knowing when they would receive their essential medicines."
[2]
[3]
[4]
HAH has yet to respond to The Register's questions over what caused the incidents and which software was involved. HAH is a user of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM system, but it is not known whether these relate to its patient information system.
Placing the the company in special measures, the CQC went on to say HAH had not acted in a timely manner to address the issues caused following the "installation" of the IT. The regulator said that by December 2020, the number of medicines missed or delayed had risen to 9,885.
"As a result of the issues with the introduction of the new information system there was not enough staff to manage the volume of work resulting in a backlog of unfulfilled medicines orders," the report said. "This included a lack of staff to take calls, pharmacists to make up prescriptions and drivers to deliver the orders to patients waiting for essential medicines."
[5]
The report said the company did not always manage safety incidents well and did not always fully investigate or learn lessons when things went wrong.
Staff who reported incidents did not always get feedback on what had happened as a result. The patient record system did not easily enable nursing staff to identify patients who may have a known allergy, information which had to be verbally checked with the patient, prior to administering medicines, the report said.
In [6]a statement , Healthcare at Home CEO Darryn Gibson said: "We deeply regret the difficulties some patients faced as a result of a short-lived problem with our new computer system last October. In collaboration with the NHS, the issue was swiftly dealt with and within a short time, patient service had returned to normal.
[7]
"We remain as committed as ever to providing patients with a high-level quality of service and our new computer system is already delivering an even better service to patients. We look forward to a rapid reinspection to confirm our services are back to normal." ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-6870866395
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YKPkm@cV@iefDawMCcnDxAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKPkm@cV@iefDawMCcnDxAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKPkm@cV@iefDawMCcnDxAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKPkm@cV@iefDawMCcnDxAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://hah.co.uk/news/cqcresponse/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKPkm@cV@iefDawMCcnDxAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: We deeply regret the difficulties
Is corporate manslaughter a thing?
Re: We deeply regret the difficulties
"...a result of a short-lived problem with our new computer system"
The trouble is, some of the patients affected were also in danger of being "short lived". That statement by Darryn Gibson could have been cut and pasted out of the book on managerial excuses.
Putting this bunch of incompetents into special measures is one thing. Getting some of the dead wood out the door as quickly as possible, starting at the top, is quite another and much more to the point.
Re: We deeply regret the difficulties
If this happened with certain medical equipment required every 4 hours by my partner she would be required to go into hospital where she would be at risk of infections (in a normal year, let alone during plague times), poor treatment and a lack of on-time medication.
I would beat down the door of the company's head office to extract deep regret from the CEO followed by a law suit to drive the company into the ground and a press campaign to ensure he never runs a health releated business again.
This is people's daily quality of life, not something you can fob off with empty platitudes.
I think I was one of them
I'd been prescribed a new biological for my Psoriatic Arthritis; Addenbrookes provided the prescription to HAH on 12th November. I heard nothing for a month and chased it up - I was told by HAH
"The provision of the drug was delayed by a question from HAH which was returned to you asking whether or not I needed a nurse to attend to demonstrate how to inject. They had not received an answer to date - so phoned your pharmacy who quite sensibly said "Ask him."".
Now that this new information is available I am very suspicious about the excuse I was given. This left me in great discomfort for anther 5 weeks. Nice one HAH.
I'm sure it's purely coincidence...
...that Halcyon Acquisitions Limited became 'person with significant control' on 26th October 2020 (taking 75% control), isn't it?
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02759609/persons-with-significant-control
"These had not been thoroughly risk assessed and tested..."
SNAFUBAR then. Who risk assesses or tests anything these days? Both are clearly a waste of time now the customer is your unpaid beta tester.
What a wanker
How on earth does he have the brass neck to say 10,000 missed deliveries between October and December is a "... short-lived problem"?
Re: What a wanker
He said short lived, not small.
Re: What a wanker
Some medication needs to be taken every few hours or the patient dies - in this case "Short lived" is a very unfortunate phrase...
Just in time supply lines
One stumble and they rapidly turn into 'far too late.' Insert standard rant about business schools here.
Re: Just in time supply lines
It's also not helped by the margins on generic drugs[0] being minuscule - quite often generic suppliers find a drug is making a loss and then stop selling it...
[0] As opposed to the "branded" drugs[1]
[1] I should mention that my job is supporting the R&D of these drugs
I can confirm that it wasn't all their customers...
But I'd be pretty incensed if my deliveries didn't arrive.
Ironically I've literally just hung up from HaH phoning me to organise my next delivery.
We deeply regret the difficulties
No, you don't. Or else you would have had some sort of measure in place like temporarily taking on some extra staff in order to run the two systems side by side in order to verify that the new system works correctly, before decommissioning the old.
The factory where I work changed its clocking in system and its track and trace system, and both were run together (yup, we had to beep in and out twice) because it's basic traceability . If you're trying to be ISO-any-numbers you simply cannot simply switch systems and just shrug until the shit hits the fan.
What I deeply regret is that your negligence injured people, and the best you have to offer is pointless platitudes like "deeply regret" and "remain committed". Management, don't slam the door on your way out......