The HMOs received incorrect results for Corona tests caused by manual typing errors

The HMOs received incorrect results for Corona tests, which were caused by manual typing errors in the laboratories. As a result, some subjects received results obtained from samples from other subjects. The extent of the malfunction is still unknown, and the Health Ministry said the mistake was discovered before the results were delivered to the subjects. The office is now trying to recreate the process to match the results to the right subjects. Due to the malfunction, the ministry yesterday ordered a freeze on the results of the tests.
A statement from the Ministry of Health said: "Due to a computer problem that was revealed tonight in the data transfer, the labs' answers are delayed. However, according to sources in the health system and the health funds, this is not a computer malfunction but a human error. The malfunction was reported to the health fund management late last night, after a full day when the results were delivered .
The corona testing system in Israel currently includes more than 20 laboratories, which perform more than 5,000 tests a day. The process works so that at the end of the lab work, all the tests are typed into a software system, to which the Ministry of Health is connected to a computer interface, and it is the one that submits the information to each fund according to its tested insurers. Accordingly, any typing error - test code digits or line misses in the data entry - may cause a malfunction. As the number of tests increases, and the burden on labs and employees increases, the greater the risk of error.
The meaning of delivering a wrong test result to the subject, whether negative or positive, works in both directions: a person carrying the virus or ill and receiving a negative result returns to his or her life and continues the infection chain. Moreover, his attention to various symptoms, even the slightest, is lower under the feeling that he is not infected with the virus. In the other direction, a healthy person who receives a false positive result automatically becomes at risk of being infected - whether in hospital or hotel room alongside sick people. In addition, there is a fear of unnecessary infection to his household and his or her environment, and they are required for unnecessary isolation.
On a broader level, errors of this kind severely compromise public confidence in the state's set of tests, raising doubts about the reliability of the results.