Nothing underscores the vulnerability of electronic records to deliberate tampering more than a recently launched investigation of such an allegation at an Australian hospital after a radiologist discovered his patient's records, which had notes critical of hospital management, had gone missing.

Some angered minority party politicians had called for an investigation by the government's South Australian Health after what they deemed a “calculated deletion” of records at Lyell McEwin Hospital, according to The Daily Telegraph.

“It seems it was a deliberate act to remove that part of the record, but the reason why they came to that decision will be part of the review,” South Australian Health Chief Executive David Swan told 891 ABC radio, adding, "if we’ve got a problem in our system we want to know about it so we can deal with it.”

The action has raised alarms about the integrity of the entire medical record system and also may have grave implications for future legal cases. To get to the bottom of the case SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips has been tasked with investigating the incident.

“If someone can decide they don’t want a report then the whole EPAS (Enterprise Patient Administration System) system is worthless,” said radiologist Dr. Paul Newbold, who initially found the record was missing.

At this point, Swan reported that it seems that a “a senior clinician and management” made the determination to erase the record.

But Lyell McEwin staff claim they can't access the system to delete records and that it appears that a "super-user" with access above doctors' privileges tampered with the information.

Software troubles were already hitting the Lyell McEwin radiology department after installation of a new computer medical imaging system called ESMI in May. The department quickly went from same-day service to a 1900 scan backlog at one point, including one of a patient whose scan was analyzed after his death. SA Health now says the computer problems have been solved.

Swan told the radio station there was no suggestion the patient’s death was linked to the delay in checking the scans but this would be investigated by Professor Phillips.

The breach of security came to light after Newbold determined that he had been overruled by a non-physician when he determined on June 30 that a CT scan on a man was unnecessary.

Newbold decided to do the scan later but found out it had already been done. In the records he stated that the executive had “stuck her nose in” on that case. He also noted a potential link between a separate death and the software issues going on.

Three days after his notations, he went looking for the notes and discovered that the medical record had been purged.

“This is very dangerous and very sinister. It is like it has never happened. It is unheard of," Newbold told the radio station. “It is like someone opening case notes, ripping out a page and putting a new page in."

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