Jan 15, 12:36 PM EST


Lawmaker to investigate software glitches at VA




WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said Thursday he would investigate software glitches at the VA that put patient safety at risk, calling the problems a sign of a "dangerous lack of accountability."

"VA continues to discover problems and attempts to fix them quietly and internally, and then downplays them as inconsequential and nonthreatening," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. "No one expects new software to operate perfectly, but confidence must be inherent in any electronic medical records system."

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that patients at VA health centers were given incorrect doses of drugs, had needed treatments delayed and may have been exposed to other medical errors due to the glitches that showed faulty displays of their electronic health records.

There is no evidence that any patient was harmed. But the glitches, which began in August and lingered until last month, were not disclosed to patients by the VA even though they sometimes involved infusions of drugs such as heparin for up to 11 hours longer than necessary, according to internal documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Heparin, a blood-thinner, can be life-threatening in excessive doses.

The VA's recent glitches involved medical data - vital signs, lab results, active meds - that sometimes popped up under another patient's name on the computer screen. Records also failed to clearly display a doctor's stop order for a treatment, leading to reported cases of unnecessary drug doses.

Documents obtained Thursday by the AP show the glitches may have extended further. In some cases, VA medical centers reported that automated dispensing machines sometimes printed out the wrong patient name when filling prescriptions for outpatients, according to an internal VA memo dated Nov. 5.

"VA bureaucrats consistently refuse to provide necessary information regarding the serious problems that affect veterans and this pattern of secrecy is disconcerting and does enormous harm," Filner said. "Oversight of this incident will continue."


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END of Associated Press Release