An application server is a server that hosts applications or software.

In a statement, Kedah health director Dr Ismuni Bihari said the hospital’s Electronic Health Information System (eHIS) encountered disruptions at 7am on Aug 11.

“An initial check found that one of its application servers failed to function.

“The disruption became more critical due to a spike in traffic caused by the surge in patient registration when the specialist clinics began operations,” he said.

Ismuni said the hospital immediately activated its business continuity plan in stages as a temporary measure to cushion the impact of the system failure.

He said the health ministry and the state health department were planning to migrate to a cloud-based system in the long-term to ensure that such incidents do not reoccur.

“We will also continue to monitor the latest development and improve eHIS to ensure operations are not affected,” he said.

Last night, FMT reported that the hospital suffered a medical records system failure, causing a major disruption to its services, including patient care and the dispensation of medication.

In use since 2008, eHIS is responsible for recording patient data, including medical reviews, laboratory results, medication history and scan reports.

The paperless system introduced by the health ministry is a critical component of hospital operations, with all departments relying heavily on it for timely and accurate information.

The system failure also affected the Sungai Petani health clinic located at the old hospital building, as well as the nurses training institute, according to a notification sent to doctors.

A doctor told FMT yesterday that “everything has gone manual”, which created a backlog and increased the risk of errors.