Inaccurate Clinical System Audit Logs

Back in May 2022 one of our local Practice Managers called to say there was an issue with the clinical access audit log in their Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in that it showed he had accessed patient records which he had not.

We started an investigation and discovered that the issue appeared to be with the AccuRx system and its interface with SystmOne. The issue was found to be that when operating certain automatic functions AccuRx will use “any approved staff member who is currently connected to their EPR” to record access against the clinical system entry in the audit log. Discussions with both the companies confirmed this was the case.

So to be clear the clinical access audit in SystmOne against a specific patient record can potentially show that a member of staff at a practice has accessed that record when they have not done so.

The issue has been escalated to NHS England who have passed it to NHS Digital. However whilst a fix is being developed all practices must be aware of the issue.

Finally if you have had any incidents involving staff access to records that may have been caused by this issue, or if you have any questions about it, please contact me as soon as possible.