In the News

Electronic medical file plan unveiled

The government will build up an "electronic medical filing system" over three years. (CNA)

• Publication Date：02/22/2010
• Source： China Times

The Department of Health has unveiled the draft proposal of a three-year, NT$6.04 billion (US$188.75 million) plan to fund local hospitals in preparing electronic medical files of patients on a wide scale.

Under the scheme, tentatively named “electronic medical filing system,” patient information will be recorded and stored on computers. A control mechanism would be in place to allow medical professionals access to the records via an electronic signature so that the files can be read, edited or copied. Electronic medical records are legally valid and can replace the need for paper records altogether.

The system can help prevent patients from undergoing lab tests and procedures multiple times, thus reducing waste of medical resources, said Shyu Charng-er, councilor and director of the Medical Informatics Center under the DOH.

The Executive Yuan will solicit opinions in February and after holding public hearings nationwide the plan will be implemented at April the earliest.

The DOH has begun helping hospitals establish electronic medical files since the end of last year, and 92 hospitals are working with the DOH in using the new method.

According to Shyu, hospitals will receive funding assistance in four areas: lab test results, imaging test results, hospital discharge abstracts and prescription records.

Currently about 500 hospitals nationwide will be eligible to receive financial assistance from the DOH. To encourage medical institutions to comply, smaller hospitals that computerize the most items the most quickly will receive more assistance in proportion.

For instance, a small hospital with 10 beds that receives 50 patients per day is entitled to received NT$5 million, equivalent to roughly 50 percent of its expenditures. On the other hand, a hospital with 2,000 beds and with 9,000 patients per day can only receive a maximum of NT$10.15 million in subsidies, or 6.5 percent of its expenditures.

All hospitals that receive assistance from the DOH will need to submit their patient e-files to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, which will then forward these records to the Hospital Administration Division. The HAD will establish a Digital Management Center to manage the records.

Before writing any prescription or asking patients to undergo lab tests, doctors at participating hospitals will be required to ask patients if they have been examined for the same symptoms. The doctors will have access to patient files to determine if prescriptions are repeated or if the same tests have been performed more than once.

DOH officials said in the initial stages of the plan, the Digital Management Center will keep patient records for at least six months. Patients can visit any participating hospital to receive a copy of their medical records in any of the four main categories within the limited time period.

If all goes according to plan, said Shyu, within three years about 80 percent of the hospitals nationwide will have electronic medical files for their patients, and roughly 60 percent of all medical records can be exchanged between different hospitals. (HZW)

(This article first appeared in the “China Times” Feb. 21, 2010.)