There are mistakes and then there are colossal mistakes. An Australian hospital comitted one of the latter recently when it mistakenly sent out death notices regarding 200 patients that are still breathing, Fox News reported.
Austin Hospital in Melbourne was forced to apologize on Thursday for the frightful "whoops moment" when it faxed death notices to the subjects' family doctors, Fox News added.
According to the hospital's operator Austin Health, the death notices were a result of an unintended change to the template the hospital uses to inform doctors when their patients have been discharged.
"We apologize unreservedly to affected clinics who, for the most part, were very understanding about the error," Health's statement said.
The error was quickly noticed, though not before at least one physician called one of the families to express his condolences, according to Arab News via the Herald Sun Newspaper.
Austin Health spokeswoman Taryn Sheehy said patient care had not been affected, but Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Associations Victoria state branch called the mistake "unacceptable" and potentionally distressing to family doctors.
An opposition lawmaker said it was symptomatic of an overworked health system, Fox News reported.
