Aussie hospital declares 200 patients dead in admin blunder

MELBOURNE - An Australian hospital apologised "unreservedly" Thursday after sending out notices to the doctors of more than 200 patients telling them they had died instead of being discharged.

The error by Austin Hospital in Melbourne was spotted within hours and the doctors were contacted, but not before at least one had called a family member to express their condolences, the Herald Sun newspaper reported.

Austin Health, which runs the hospital, said the notices -- which were sent on Wednesday, July 30 -- were a result of "human error" after changes to a death notification template were saved to the standard discharge template.

"On recognising the error on the Wednesday morning, Austin Hospital immediately contacted all GP clinics affected," Austin Health spokeswoman Taryn Sheehy said in a statement.

"We apologised unreservedly to affected clinics who, for the most part, were very understanding about the error."

Sheehy added that patient care was not affected, but the president of the Australian Medical Association's Victoria state branch, Tony Bartone, said the blunder was "unacceptable".

Full story: http://www.enca.com/aussie-hospital-declares-200-patients-dead-admin-blunder

-- eNCA 2014-08-14
 

Classic

Interesting how blunders back home attracts little attention ..... whereas If it was a Thai Hospital blunder we would never hear the end of it..just saying

Location noted....

I can imagine the hundreds of Thai bashing posts here if would have been a Thai hospital...

It happened in some far off country - not Thailand. To a certain extent, why should anybody be interested to comment on it. The posters on TVF come from a variety of countries and these blunders really only interest the local people.

Glad I did not spend that inheritance cheque then.

So, not in Thailand then? Move along!

It happened in some far off country - not Thailand. To a certain extent, why should anybody be interested to comment on it. The posters on TVF come from a variety of countries and these blunders really only interest the local people.

Hardly a far off country - damn sight closer than Europe or the US .

This kind of problem can be corrected...the hundreds who DO actually die in hospitals due to incompetent hospital employees is a REAL problem...which they sweep under the rug...makes me nervous having to go to a hospital...putting your life in one's hands...who does not give a flip about you...

Edited August 14, 201411 yr by ggt

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I can imagine the hundreds of Thai bashing posts here if would have been a Thai hospital... alt=coffee1.gif width=32 height=24>

 

Okay... I'll bite.... American hospitals and health system... You would not even hear about this for a week or 2 until someone has spun the proper butt-saving response (Yes, I'm Amurikan...). And a morbid sidenote: >>> Death to the people All rise, Eat the Drugs of death... etc., blah, and blah, Praise Big Pharma

I can imagine the hundreds of Thai bashing posts here if would have been a Thai hospital...

Thai hospitals wouldn't bother to notify anybody about anything.   

Don't lie Credo.

Families would have been asked to come in and immediately pay the bill.

Be an ideal situation if your going through a divorce and was sent to your X, yes even the Aussies have malfunctions like every other country in the world.  

It happened in some far off country - not Thailand. To a certain extent, why should anybody be interested to comment on it. The posters on TVF come from a variety of countries and these blunders really only interest the local people.

So  no more comments on the UK pensions, Obamacare, Schengen visas?

It happened in some far off country - not Thailand. To a certain extent, why should anybody be interested to comment on it. The posters on TVF come from a variety of countries and these blunders really only interest the local people.

 

hum.... a variety of countries, you say ? It's probably impossible to know for sure but pretty obvious that a large majority of TVF members come from english-speaking countries. Try making a critical comment about UK, Australia or the US, and you'll see...

 

It's an english-speaking forum so it's logical that most posters would be native speakers, but no, it's not really an international forum. I don't know if such a forum exists for real, as a matter of fact.

 

I can imagine the hundreds of Thai bashing posts here if would have been a Thai hospital...

Thai hospitals wouldn't bother to notify anybody about anything.   

 

 

See ? If you're eager to Thaibash all you have to do is start with 'if this happened in Thailand' and off you go. Thanks for giving us a good example, Credo.

Edited August 14, 201411 yr by Yann55

a. The headline is misleading.

b. Fucking Australians. Can't shovel shit.

a. The headline is misleading.

b. <deleted> Australians. Can't shovel shit.

We do not need to ...we have machines to do that. 

Classic

Bit of a misleader....so the girl at the computer took a list andpessed F1 to send this leteer to all the Doctors on this list instead of pressing F2 to send a letter to the doctors that they were being discharged.

At least they did not feel the need to run round the ward to ensure that the letter was true so the hospital did not have to lose face.

Edited August 15, 201411 yr by harrry

 

I can imagine the hundreds of Thai bashing posts here if would have been a Thai hospital...

Thai hospitals wouldn't bother to notify anybody about anything.   

 

 

First post to turn it into Thai Bashing thread.  Congrats.
 

Edited August 15, 201411 yr by thailiketoo

This kind of problem can be corrected...the hundreds who DO actually die in hospitals due to incompetent hospital employees is a REAL problem...which they sweep under the rug...makes me nervous having to go to a hospital...putting your life in one's hands...who does not give a flip about you...

 

Mr Perfect, right? People do die in hospitals because they have been sick or injured. Sometimes from medical "misadventure". Generally speaking doctors and nurses do care about their patients and are not incompetent. I hope they do not recognise you when you may have to enter hospital!

 

As for the Australian hospital mentioned, at least they did not blame the computer system. I just hope that some supervisor or manager got their backside kicked very hard for causing any distress.