People insured by AOK Rheinland can be treated in 14 hospitals along the Dutch and Belgium coast by presenting their German health insurance card, called GCE. Bureaucratic procedures involving paper forms are avoided. Insurance cover verification follows via a web application.
The delivery of ePrescriptions is a joint effort between each county council in Sweden and Apoteket, Sweden’s national pharmacy. Currently 42% of all prescriptions in Sweden are transferred from the doctor to the pharmacy electronically via a health extranet, Sjunet, or by using web based prescribing.
With help of the system, operators can identify the nature of the emergency, give first advice, and allocate an ambulance equipped with the appropriate facilities and staff. Time savings occur from a location reporting system, allowing operators to identify free ambulances nearest to the location of the emergency.
Institut Curie is a combined research and treatment hospital, specialising in oncology. Elios is the comprehensive internal EHR system. Promethee is a tool allowing simultaneous enquiries in different databases, including Elios, enabling fast data collection for research purposes. Both applications serve the goal of a paperless hospital.
The eHealth application is a national EHR, used by all relevant stakeholders in healthcare, including the patients themselves. It is supported by the largest health insurer in the Czech Republic, serving two thirds of the Czech population.
The application provides an electronic vaccination record for each child, an effective means of vaccination stock control and supply, a rapid, reliable channel of communication to doctors and nurses about changes to vaccination policies and practices and a source of data for performance monitoring, and policy and strategy development.
The network allows fast information flow, in form of consistent data. It connects healthcare providers (GPs, hospitals, pharmacies…) as well as relevant stakeholders of the social care system.
MOC offers a storage and supply system. About 90% of articles used at a hospital ward, including many drugs, can be barcoded and stored according to a standardised system. Routine supplies can thus be managed by non-medical staff and take less time.
NHSDO is a web portal providing the public with healthcare information and advice run by the UK National Health Services. It is in addition to the NHS Direct call centre service.
Telecardiology in Italy: Benefits from a telemedicine network
connecting chronic patients, General Practitioners and Health
Provider Organisations, Lombardy region, Italy
This case was undertaken by the eHealth Impact team on behalf of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), London.
The Health Telematic Network and the Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri gradually extended the initial telecardiology service, set up in 1998 for the Boario Home Care Project, to more locations in Lombardy. The philosophy behind this expansion was to convert evidence from clinical trials and research into benefits for everyday practice. The Lombardy Region authorities have commissioned an expansion of the service from 2006 on to cover the whole region.
Three different types of services are now available. One is a service to provide a rapid second opinion for general practitioners. The second type of services is home telenursing for chronic patients. The third service is a call centre service for hospitals. The service centre provides technological and organisational support, while the hospitals’ cardiologists and nurses manage healthcare activity.
Reacting to a shortage of radiologists in Sweden, the application allows regular teleconsultations for Swedish patients given by specialists in Spain.