HALIFAX — A software error that delayed the electronic delivery of medical test results could have affected 578 patients in Nova Scotia, but it was unclear Monday whether anyone was harmed by the problem.

Health Minister Chris d'Entremont said Monday his department has contacted physicians to ask if the delays caused them any medical problems.

"The information will be reviewed by the doctor and it will be decided if there is any followup needed with the patient,'' d'Entremont said during a hastily called news conference.

The lab results and diagnostic test results that went astray were wide ranging, including blood tests, skin swabs, X-rays, MRI results and CT scans.

D'Entremont said doctor organizations have reassured him that "should there be an abnormal test on someone, the lab will always call the doctor and say, `there's something going on here we want you to follow up on.'''

Lisa Napier, manager for primary health-care information management, said most doctors have been receiving the information through alternative methods.

"What we're hearing from the physicians is they have backup systems for the electronic medical records,'' she said. "They get them by telephone, they get them by fax.''

The electronic medical records began going astray in January but doctors and clinics were receiving duplicate paper records until April.

D'Entremont said nobody reported the problem directly to the Health Department.

Napier said the department only identified the computer problem on Sept. 13, when a doctor telephoned officials.

She said the software vendor, Nightingale Informatix, told her the problem occurred when there were duplicate records, or charts, for the same patient.

"The system couldn't decide which patient to attach the chart to,'' Napier said. "It's very important to ensure that the right chart goes with the right patient chart.''

D'Entremont said the error was fixed over the weekend after teams of programmers worked day and night for over a week. Since then, the software program's monitoring systems have been improved to ensure that future problems are flagged more quickly.

About 32 per cent of physicians in Nova Scotia receive patient records electronically, and the Health Department had hoped to keep expanding the program.

D'Entremont said he doesn't expect the glitch will cause a slowdown in plans to shift records onto computers.

"This is a move in most jurisdictions in Canada, if not across North America, to have a repository of patient information,'' he said.

"If you're receiving complex treatment, all the physicians can look at the same record. ...We want to see that expanded across Nova Scotia.''

For the time being, though, labs will send all results both electronically and by fax, the minister said.