{"id":249576,"date":"2025-10-29T22:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249576\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T22:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:17:09","slug":"acacia-system-returning-to-royal-darwin-hospital-emergency-department-despite-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249576\/","title":{"rendered":"Acacia system returning to Royal Darwin Hospital emergency department despite concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A controversial health patient record system will return to the Northern Territory’s busiest emergency department in two weeks, 20 months after it was switched off due to patient safety concerns.<\/p>\n

Following several delays, NT Health has confirmed Acacia will be reintroduced to Royal Darwin Hospital’s (RDH) emergency department on November 13.<\/p>\n

It comes as staff using Acacia in other sections of RDH said it was putting lives at risk.<\/p>\n

The IT project was established in 2017 to integrate four patient record systems into one across the NT’s health facilities.<\/p>\n

But the rollout has been plagued with problems<\/a>, despite $320 million being spent.<\/p>\n

The Department of Corporate and Digital Development (DCDD) has been responsible for implementing Acacia, with input from NT Health.<\/p>\n

The system was meant to provide frontline staff with more comprehensive patient information and deliver it faster.<\/p>\n

But after just two months of use at RDH’s emergency department \u2014 the NT’s largest \u2014 it was switched off in January 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Main<\/p>\n

Acacia was only used in the RDH emergency department for two months before being switched off. (ABC News: Dane Hirst\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The retreat from NT Health followed pressure from senior RDH emergency department clinicians, who declared it a threat to patient safety.<\/p>\n

During the two months it was operational, Acacia was incapable of showing each patient’s location inside the emergency department<\/a>, unlike similar software systems across the world.<\/p>\n

Hospital staff were therefore unaware where the most at-risk patients were<\/a>, and basic clinical information was also hard to access.<\/a><\/p>\n

How an NT Health software upgrade went so wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

After nearly nine years and almost $300 million spent, the first stage of the NT government’s five-stage Acacia project hasn’t been completed.<\/p>\n

An NT Health spokesperson said DCDD and senior NT Health staff had since been working in partnership with developer InterSystems, to “co-design a fit-for-purpose system that meets the dynamic and unique needs”.<\/p>\n

“Royal Darwin Hospital emergency department staff have been undertaking training and user testing in preparation for the re-implementation,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Additional support from experienced Acacia users will be provided during system implementation, and for as long as needed post implementation to ensure successful integration into work practices.”<\/p>\n

Once Acacia returns to RDH’s emergency department, it will be in use at all NT hospitals, having gone live in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in August.<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Everything takes about 10 times longer’ with Acacia<\/p>\n

Although Acacia has not been used inside RDH’s emergency department for 20 months, all other sections of the hospital have continued to use it.<\/p>\n

One staff member not authorised to speak publicly said Acacia remained “very difficult to use” and “everything takes about 10 times longer than the old paper systems”.<\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

Use of Acacia has continued in other sections of RDH, while suspended inside the emergency department. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

They also said patient referrals would often go missing.<\/p>\n

“We’ve lost triages and lots of people have fallen off outpatient lists as a result,” they said.<\/p>\n

“A patient who is being referred with a condition that would normally be triaged as a category one, means they should be seen within 30 days.<\/p>\n

“Since implementing Acacia in the outpatient space, countless outpatient referrals have been lost and we have no idea how many.<\/p>\n

“With patient referrals falling off the list, the patient will potentially not be seen until the referral is found.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

RDH is the NT’s largest hospital. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

The staff member said the consequences of Acacia’s failures could be devastating.<\/p>\n

“People could potentially die if their triages are lost or their outpatient appointments are missed, or the system’s losing patient referrals,” they said.<\/p>\n

“People could die, need more urgent surgery or miss the opportunity to intervene at an early stage and prevent expensive later treatments if they aren’t seen in appropriate time frames.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial health patient record system will return to the Northern Territory’s busiest emergency department in two weeks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[148101,64,63,4046,50028,62398,137,500,4082,8867,1098,148103,10557,148102,55288],"class_list":["post-249576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-acacia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-doctors","tag-ed","tag-emergency-department","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-northern-territory","tag-nt","tag-patient-health-record","tag-patients","tag-rdh","tag-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}