Patients get other people's lab results in mass hospital mix-up

Over the last three months, some 40 cases of erroneous lab results have surfaced in hospitals across the country.

A Health Ministry statement, issued Wednesday, explains that the incidents occurred as a result of a computer program error. The statement went on to say that none of the patients suffered any harm as a result of the mix-up.

The malfunction emerged when a doctor at the Assaf Harofe Hospital in Tzrifin discovered the computer error, which led to an extensive Health Ministry investigation.

The doctor received the lab results of a woman in the maternity ward, and recognized the results as belonging to a man who was hospitalized the emergency room. The doctor reported his suspicions and found that he was right, and the results did in fact belong to a different patient. He also found that seven other patients in the hospital had received lab results that did not belong to them.

Following the discovery, the Health Ministry ran a comprehensive test, going over the data bases at all the general and government hospitals, and found 25 similar cases at Wolfson and Assaf Harofe during October and November, and another three cases at Hadera's Hillel Yafe Medical Center and in Nahariya, and another at Ichilov in Tel Aviv.

The investigation revealed that at the root of the confusion stood the method that was used to transfer results from the laboratories' computerized system to the hospital data bases.

Upon discovering the glitch, an HP team was tasked with monitoring the movement of lab results in real time in efforts to immediately identify the malfunction as it happens, and prevent further confusion.

In addition, the Health Ministry has briefed all medical workers on the existence of the problem, instructing them to keep a watchful eye on future lab results.