Life

Health records database plan greenlighted

• Publication Date：10/13/2009
• Source： United Daily News

The Council for Economic Planning and Development Oct. 12 approved fast-tracking a plan that will allow at least 60 percent of the nation’s hospitals to share medical records of patients within three years.

Starting in 2010, once a patient receives a major health examination at one hospital—especially an exam involving radiation such as a CT scan, an MRI, or a positron emission tomography (PET) scan—it will not be necessary for the same procedure to be performed again at another hospital, because doctors will be able to retrieve the results saved on a Department of Health database.

Patients can thus be spared the agony of having to undergo the same procedure more than once. They will also be exposed to lower amounts of radiation.

Starting in 2011, patients’ blood test results and prescription records will also become available on the database. Clinics and hospitals will have access to the database upon patients’ approval and after an electronic authorization form has been "signed" by medical personnel.

With reduplication of medical tests cut to a minimum, substantial resources can be saved. Patients will be able to save both time and money as they will not have to go from one doctor to another only to have the same tests performed on them repeatedly.

Within the next three years, the DOH hopes, about 80 percent of all the nation’s hospitals, or roughly 400 of them, should be able to share patient information as contained in digital images, test results and prescription records.

The DOH also intends to build up a digital network linking at least 60 percent of all hospitals so as to share patients’ electronic medical records via the DOH database.

The ultimate goal is for all hospitals nationwide to be fully connected digitally within five years, a DOH official said.

The CEPD will provide financial incentives to encourage individual hospitals and clinics to develop computerized medical procedures and digitalized medical records. Each qualified hospital will receive a maximum amount of NT$20 million (US$619,000) in subsidies over a three-year period. (LC-HZW)