The Federal Teaching Hospital, Owerri has debunked reports circulating on social media that 10 patients died at the hospital as a result of disruptions caused by the ongoing upgrade of its Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.

The hospital management, in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Anyaegbu Ikechukwu, said the claim that 10 people died because of the system upgrade was “completely incorrect” and categorically refuted it.

Management said attributing deaths in the hospital to the system upgrade was a “gross misrepresentation and ignorance of complex medical and life-threatening emergencies” handled at the health facility.

The hospital explained that the upgrade was a scheduled exercise aimed at moving the EMR system to a newer version to improve efficiency, accessibility, data security and the overall quality of healthcare delivery.

According to the statement, the upgrade is also expected to strengthen the hospital’s digital health infrastructure, facilitate telemedicine services, improve patient data management and align its operations with evolving global healthcare practices.

It stressed that there was no shutdown of clinical services during the transition, noting that the wards had been onboarded onto the new system ahead of its deployment, while clinics remained operational and alternative processes were put in place to ensure continuity of care.

The management, however, acknowledged that the migration had resulted in unexpected technical difficulties, workflow challenges, delays and inconvenience in some services, adding that it regretted the difficulties experienced by patients and staff.

It said the hospital’s management, ICT unit, clinical teams and technical consultants had been working round the clock to resolve the challenges, with significant progress recorded and full services restored in many units.

Management said it expected the outstanding technical issues to be substantially resolved within the next 48 hours, while appealing to members of the public to verify information through official hospital channels rather than relying on unverified social media reports.

“The hospital remains firmly committed to its mandate of providing safe, compassionate, accessible and high-quality healthcare services to the people of Imo State and beyond,” the statement said. (The Nation)