With the objective of accelerating patient treatment times, seven years ago Tigre implemented an electronic health record system. It started to operate at the Family Care and Health Centers (CAFyS) in the neighborhoods of Troncos de Talar and Don Torcuato and today it functions at every municipal hospital and each regional CAFyS representing an investment of over 2 million pesos every year.
Julio Zamora, the Mayor of Tigre, stated: “We are continuing to expand in the extremely important area of new technologies in the health sector. It is fundamental for our community that we keep modernizing to provide an immediate, more effective response.”
The health record, adapted for local residents and set up for family groups, is chiefly designed for use by doctors. In fact the tool allows every resident to access their health information during their consult regardless of the establishment they are being treated at.
A secondary benefit has been the eradication of the use of paper to store data, relieving patients of the responsibility of taking their health record to each health center and making the files more readable.
Malena Galmarini, Secretary of Health Policy and Human Development in Tigre, said: “In this case, the technology helps us to work on preventative health policies, investing more intelligently with direct results for residents’ health.”
All the healthcare information is stored in servers in Tigre to protect the confidentiality of the data so each user can request their own full or partial health record from their doctor or any medical establishment.
Soon they will also be able to have access to their basic data via the internet from any mobile device. In this regard, Galmarini said: “It’s not about only treating people who are sick, it’s about giving all residents the same degree of access and the same opportunities.”
The system, which was set up in 2008, now functions at all 24 health facilities in the municipality and facilitates over a million consults each year.
