Pregnant pause as glitch causes baby due date errors
More than 1700 pregnant women's due dates were incorrectly recorded by South Australia's health department, prompting an independent review.
SA Health says a technical fault between November 2023 and June 2024 affected the estimated date of delivery entered into the women's medical records.
It resulted in the file data reverting to the first day of their last menstrual period rather than any subsequent updated date from a scan during their antenatal care.
The department's chief executive, Robyn Lawrence, says 1600 women affected by the glitch had already given birth.
"Midwives reviewed all of the 111 women who are currently pregnant and they have not been impacted," she said in a statement issued on Friday.
The department is halfway through a review of the 1600 medical records of the 1600 women who have given birth and "no adverse impacts have been found".
"For many women, any discrepancy would have been manually updated in the system by their clinician," Dr Lawrence said.
All the women whose records were impacted have or will be contacted and notified of the error.
"On behalf of SA Health, I apologise for the error, and any concern or inconvenience this may cause to those whose files were affected," Dr Lawrence said.
Health Minister Chris Picton said he was thankful there had been "no adverse outcome identified so far for any mother or baby".
He has ordered an independent review into the incident.
It will be led by Commissioner for Innovation and Excellence in Health Keith McNeil and is expected to take several months, with the findings and recommendations to be made public.
The department has since implemented safeguards into its medical record system to ensure this issue will not happen again.
