The new Unified Central Information System is coming to replace the fragmented and inefficient system of telephone appointments in hospitals and to offer better health services to citizens.
According to the Ministry of Digital Governance, the new Central Electronic Appointment System is financed with public expenditure (EPA), which amounts to 6,705,176 euros. It serves -among other advantages- the need to connect all hospitals to a central control platform, with the aim of the Ministry of Health having an overview of the system’s needs at all times and to intervene in time when appointments are not served in the expected times.
Appointments for attendance in the Health system are made up to now only by telephone – through companies or by physical contact with the hospitals – while the individual information systems of the hospitals do not communicate with each other.
Therefore, there is an inability to control attendance, difficulty for the citizen in choosing the time that serves him and an inability to find the flow of the citizen within the hospital.
The benefits
The new Central Electronic Appointment System will be interoperable and its data will be disclosed to the Ministry of Health. It will also be possible to:
- To reduce waiting times for regular appointments
- Abolish exorbitant charges per phone call
- Communication should be immaterial and more direct both with the citizen and with third parties/organizations or between the departments of the hospital itself
- To save from limiting paper handling
- There should be a better management of the available resources of the Health system
- There should be better management of the problems highlighted by the pandemic and which must be resolved, with the aim of preparing the Health system to deal with similar situations in the future.
“The Central System of Electronic Appointments in hospitals is another step towards the central management and monitoring of data regarding access to NHS services, which, in addition to improving the experience of citizens, can also be a “compass” for taking strategies decisions”, reports the Ministry of Digital Governance.
THE SINGLE DIGITAL SURGERY LIST HAS BEEN STARTED
In the same context of the reduction of waiting times, the faster service of the citizens, but also the more rational management of appointments in the public health system, it is recalled that from February 1st, the Single Digital List of Surgeries was put into operation, which is -also- compiled through the electronic platform operating at IDIKA.
The Single List of Surgeries is the digital filing system, in which the order of priority of surgical operations to be performed in hospitals is displayed.
All the above reforms in the field of Health, in addition to reducing waiting times, aim to also ensure the monitoring of the clinical characteristics of patients, the facilitation of the work of NHS doctors, but also to deal with the pathologies of the system at the expense of the patients.
“We will continue in the next period, at an unabated pace, the targeted actions with the aim of changing for the better the image of Public Health in our country”, the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, has characteristically stated.
Finally, it should be noted that all the above systems will be interconnected through IDIKA with the immaterial prescription, the patients’ personal emails, and also the MyHealthApp application.
