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[Year] May 2007 [Description] The mistake occurred Nov. 14 when two female patients were scheduled for computed tomography, or CT scans, according to the state report. The first patient underwent an appendectomy that very evening because of the CT results. But the surgery was unnecessary. The next day, a radiologist discovered the patient's CT scan was actually that of a second patient. Hospital staff told state inspectors that the technologist had trouble starting the required intravenous line for the first patient and took her out of the CT scan room to complete that task. However, the patient's information had already been entered into the computer system for the CT scan. After the second patient's scan was completed, a radiology technician noted the error, removed the first patient's information and entered information on the second patient. When the first patient's information was deleted from the computer in the scan room, it was not deleted from the computer system used by the radiologist. "This was due to an incompatibility of the software between the two systems," the state report said. [References] Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 23rd, 2008 Complete report [Name] 
Software incompatibility was part of a chain of events leading to the wrong patient getting an appendectomy.
Homepage of the EFMI WG Assessment of Health Information Systems
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