The results of the Health ICT Survey, a part of the Salud.uy program being implemented by the Agency for the Development of Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC) in Uruguay, have been published.
The program, financed by the International development Bank (IDB) and carried out by Equipo Consultores, has the objective of digitalizing the data of patients and the formation of a computer protocol that will generate a standardized series of procedures to facilitate the exchange of information between providers.
“At Salud.uy, we need to establish a basis to assess the state of the country with objective data. This is the first study into how healthcare uses information technology in Uruguay,” said Jorge Foncella, the program director. He added that the survey would continue over the next few years to analyze and evaluate change.
According to the survey, the healthcare professionals interviewed believe that digitalization:
a) Improves team processes, the quality of care and diagnosis-related decisions
b) Reduces duplication of tests and errors in medication administration
c) Increases patient satisfaction
Informatics:
– 100% of institutions have access to computers and broadband Internet.
– 70% have an informatics department.
– 90% apply information back up policies.
Electronic Health Record:
– 25% of health system users (846,328 people) have digitalized their clinical history.
– 5% of institutions keep all their patient data in digital format.
– 64% have the majority on paper and the rest digitalized.
– 19% have the majority digitalized but still use paper.
– 11% have all the information on paper.
– 12% of institutions can send and receive information from the EHR to and from other institutions.
– 66% of the integral institutions have at least one application that allows for the electronic registration of data.
Integral institutions:
– 92% of the scheduling of outpatient consults is fully electronic.
– 90% of patient data is digitalized.
– 74% of files of laboratory results are digital.
– 68% of admissions, transfers and patient discharges are full available electronically.
– 50% of radiological examinations are digital.
– 42% of Electronic records in all processes of reference and counter-reference are digital and for the diagnosis or record of a patient’s health status, only 13% are fully electronic.
Equipo Consultores took a sample of 600 professionals (doctors, students and nursing assistants) and 97 administrators, directors and technicians in charge of the ICT department at healthcare establishments. The institutions surveyed were: Instituciones de Asistencia Médica Colectiva (IAMC), mobile medical emergencies, ASSE (RAP and hospitals at the departmental level) and all the hospitals in the Integrated Network of Public Health Effectors (RIEPS).
