The Ministry of Health of Entre Ríos will be the regulatory authority of the implementation process of the Electronic Health Record in the province, after the legislative project was definitively approved by the Chamber of Senators.
The initiative will declare access to electronic health records as a patient right in their relationship with professionals and healthcare suppliers.
The legislative project presented by Deputy Rubén Almará, which was partially approved in the Lower Chamber in December 2013, states: “Universally considered as a right inherent to the status of patients is that to receive proper medical care; to receive respectful and dignified treatment from healthcare professionals; to receive reliable, sufficient, clear and opportune information about diagnosis, prognosis and medical treatment; to be treated with confidentiality and to have a full clinical history or record and direct and personal access to that file.”
The regulation requires municipalities to have healthcare providers under their administration that are capable of following the regulation. The objective is to promote the modernization of the handling of sensible information, which can be requested by the patient beyond their place of permanent residence.
To ensure access to information – obtained from electronic or physical consults – the system seeks to establish minimum standards for the creation of the Electronic Health Record, to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system and to offer confidentiality and protection of each patient’s clinical and personal information.
Senator Eduardo Melchiori, President of the Commissions of the General Legislature and the Health, the Environment and Drug Addiction of the Higher Chamber, said that the project will advance and noted: “In time the initiative will be a central part of the Entre Rios healthcare system.”
From now on, the Electronic Health Record system must adhere to a set of general principles for its use and functioning, including the need to make the information contained within available to the patient. To achieve that, the progressive informatization of clinical records will date back up to ten years.
Source: Cámara de Senadores Entre Ríos
