EHR software voluntarily recalled

EHR software used in 20 states has been voluntarily recalled by the vendor, according to a document filed with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

In June, UnitedHealth Group issued a voluntary recall for emergency department EHR software because of an error that caused physicians' notes about patient prescriptions to drop out of their records. 

The software, the Picis ED PulseCheck software--UnitedHealth acquired the Wakefield-Mass.-based company in 2010--is used in 35 facilities. The recall began June 21 and UnitedHealth said that each facility was notified and received a software fix. UnitedHealth spokesperson Kyle Christensen said there have been no reports of patient safety problems related to the error.

In a statement Christensen said, "Picis completed a routine software update that resolved an issue in specific releases where some physician notes entered manually on a prescription were not included when the prescription was issued. Picis reported the resolution of this issue to clients and FDA in the normal course of business."

More than 17 million medication mistakes are now avoided annually in the U.S. because hospitals are using computerized systems for ordering prescription drugs, according to a study published in the February issue of Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

An online database maintained by the FDA shows that Picis has reported six recalls involving EHR software since 2009, including anesthesia management software that displayed one patient's medical information in another patient’s file, software that failed to display the discontinued status on medication orders and glitches that caused a failure to display appropriate allergy interaction warnings.