Misplaced records wreaking havoc for UK hospitals

The Imperial College Healthcare Trust is being investigated for downplaying the problems associated with faulty record keeping. The Daily Telegraph reported that the errors had the potential to affect up to 1,000 cancer patients at the five hospitals the trust oversees.

"We are extremely sorry that this situation was not identified and resolved earlier," a statement from the trust read. "However, we would like to reassure our patients that this was an issue of poor record keeping not clinical care."

Scotland has also reported problems with their document management, BBC News discovered. Over 100 medical records were lost over a one year period. The studies were enough for elected officials to call for an investigation into how these hospitals are handling their data, according to the news source.

A proper enterprise content management system may have helped avoid the situation through the digitization and archiving of important files. As investigations into accountability continue, more hospitals may start thinking about updating their services to avoid any accidental loss of files and information such as clinical notes and records.

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