Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says some hospitals across the country are seeing bugs in new software that was designed to streamline the process — but it may actually be endangering patients. Grassley says 19-billion taxpayer dollars were used to encourage development and to implement HIT — Health Information Technology — and it evidently needs some tweaking.
“Over the last few months, concerns have been brought to my attention including administrative complications, formatting and usability issues, errors in interoperability,” Grassley says. “Some health care providers have said the software is producing incorrect medication dosages because it miscalculated body weights by interchanging kilograms and pounds.”
Grassley is sending letters to officials with 32 hospitals nationwide, quizzing them on the problems they’re experiencing with HIT. None of the 32 are located in Iowa.