UnitedHealth recalls prescription records software due to glitch

(Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group Inc recalled software used to manage emergency department electronic health records in 22 states after discovering a bug that caused the program to lose some doctors' notes on patient prescriptions. UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health insurer, has a health information and technology consulting division called Optum that makes this and other software used to manage electronic health records. The recall of the Picis ED PulseCheck software began in June after the company notified customers of the problem, in which the software failed to display notes that doctors had entered manually rather than through a drop-down menu. An update to the program fixing the glitch was issued to customers shortly thereafter, and no adverse results were reported, UnitedHealth spokesman Kyle Christensen said. UnitedHealth reported the problem to the Food and Drug Administration. The recall, which affected the software at 35 emergency care settings, was made public in a regulatory document posted on the agency's web site on July 29 and was first reported by Bloomberg News this week. (Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Susan Kelly in Chicago)