A systemwide computer glitch in Mountain States Health Alliance's IT network impacted a number of clinical and IT workflows last week, according to a Kingsport Tennessee Times News report.
The glitch, which has been resolved according to an email from an MSHA spokeswoman, stemmed from necessary upgrades to the hospital's Cerner EHR, the Times News reported.
"All hospitals are currently live on the system," the spokeswoman told the Times News in an email statement. "Industry best practices were utilized in preparing for the upgrades. And prior to installation of the upgrades, the enhancements were run twice in a test environment to ensure they worked properly. Once implemented, however, the system began to experience delays, requiring hospitals to switch to standard downtime procedures to prevent backlogging of data. These downtime procedures were used at various facilities for nine days while the issues were addressed."
Patients told the Times News that during the 'downtime procedures' they were unable to access certain electronic test results, like ultrasounds, and the emergency department experienced longer-than-usual wait times since medical staff weren't able to access existing EHRs.
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