With multiple stakeholders involved, the journey towards digital transformation in healthcare requires patience and a long-term vision. Nevertheless, the emergence of digital health is opening up new possibilities to create an informed, holistic healthcare delivery model with the patient at its heart.
Quality healthcare has always relied on making connections: from the description of symptoms to diagnosis, between patients and healthcare professionals, and across the multi-layered healthcare ecosystem. A prime example of this is in Belgium where, as reported on DataNews.be and the federal government’s eHealth platform, a pioneering electronic prescription and Shared Health Records solution,Recip-e, is being launched and is set to optimize Belgian healthcare provision for decades to come.
Doctors and pharmacists are currently connecting to the Recip-e software and the massive task of digitizing an estimated 120 million annual prescriptions is underway. In the next rollout phase (ending mid-2015), referrals (physiotherapy, nursing, technical examinations such as radiology/lab tests, specialist consultations) will follow. Full nationwide roll out is scheduled for 2015.
So what are the advantages?
- Greater security & confidentiality: The patient’s electronic ID card is the only key; no other access is possible.
- Linking systems: Recip-e cuts out the paperwork in the middle, resulting in process efficiency.
- Increased productivity: On average a pharmacist contacts a prescribing GP by phone five times a day because a prescription is illegible. With Recip-e, an estimated 55,000 non-productive minutes per day will be avoided.
- Reduced fraud: Unlike paper prescriptions, digital prescriptions are impossible to photocopy or use for fraudulent purposes, so Recip-e will help to reduce overconsumption of scarce healthcare resources and funding.
- Improved healthcare: Ever tried to read a doctor’s handwriting? Recip-e will reduce the instances of incorrect medication (dosage and product) currently estimated at 15% with paper prescriptions. It will also avoid doctors handing out blank prescriptions to patients and pharmacists to fill in themselves.
- Adverse drug events: 2,9% of hospitalizations are due to wrongly prescribed medicines. It is estimated that Recip-e will reduce this figure by one-third, considerably enhancing the health of patients and reducing healthcare costs.
Another example, this time a hospital-at-home program, comes from France, where the user-friendly tablet app Patient Home Care is being piloted with 100 patients of Paris hospitals, enabling nursing staff to monitor and share patient data (prescriptions, medication, etc.) for faster, safer and more effective care at home, and increasing patient comfort along the way. Keeping the nurse/patient relationship as human as possible was a major consideration when developing this app, which involved users at key stages. The message: Technology is an important enabler but user adoption is key to successful digital transformation of healthcare.
Of course, advances in digital health also come with enormous responsibilities, and healthcare providers and insurers will need to ensure they in turn reassure their customers of careful data management, that it is being taken into the best consideration and that the best evidence globally is leveraged to dispense optimum care. But just based on these two examples, the prognosis is looking good for patients in the years to come.
For more information and insights from Accenture Health Services, click here
