The Ministry of Health of Panama is to implement a Health IT (HIT) system at five healthcare centers and five Innovative Primary Care Centers (MINSA-CAPSI) located in the interior of the country. The project will include a comprehensive corporate system for hospital administration and Electronic Health Records that will incorporate both hospital and primary care.
The Minister of Health, Javier Diaz, announced that the initiative would be implemented at 100 health centers in the country within two years.
The system will include eight modules: hospitalization, outpatients, primary care, electronic prescriptions, surgery, emergencies and laboratory work.
“With this system, the doctor can access our file from anywhere in the country, which will improve medical care,” explained President Ricardo Martinelli.
He also said that authorized professionals will be able to check their schedule and the different procedures that have been carried out over the course of treatment, even if the patient has been to several different public health centers.
The main objectives are to guarantee integrated healthcare and to coordinate and eliminate manual health records at centers and hospitals, so the computer system is ready to store citizens’ data in digital format.
The healthcare information will be administered by CSC, which won the tender for the project. So centers run by the Panama Ministry of Health – over 20 hospitals and 80 primary care centers – will have a coordinated and centralized system based on xHIS and eSIAP systems.
Antonio Alonso, the director of CSC Health in Latin America, said that the solutions provide efficiency and efficacy in the comprehensive administration of healthcare services and will facilitate continuity of care. “We are grateful for the ministry’s confidence in our model for patient-focused healthcare. It is an honor for us to work with the Ministry of Health of Panama on its Electronic Health Record project, which will make it possible to integrate and coordinate health services thanks to Information and Communication Technologies,” he concluded.
Source: Gobierno Nacional de la República de Panamá
