Warning about software errors: Incorrect medication dosages possible
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) has issued an urgent warning to medical practices in Germany. There are technical problems with the software that doctors use to manage their patients. These errors can lead to important information about medications being stored incorrectly in the system.
The problem occurs when the so-called "federal medication plan" (BMP) is imported into the practice software. This plan is an important document for patients who have to take many different medications. It is intended to ensure that all doctors know exactly which tablets a patient is taking and in what quantity.
Due to an error in the data transmission, the software sometimes displays incorrect dosages. This means that the doctor's computer shows a different amount than the patient's paper plan. Such transmission errors are dangerous because, in the worst case, patients could receive too high or too low a dose of their medication.
The KBV therefore advises all doctors to be particularly cautious. After importing a medication plan, the data in the system should always be manually compared with the original document. At the moment, one should not rely blindly on the automatic transfer by the technology.
The manufacturers of the affected software programs have already been informed about the errors and are working on a solution. This incident clearly shows that while digitalization in the healthcare system simplifies many processes, it can also create new risks for patient safety that require constant monitoring.