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A single health record system is a viable option

Finnish university hospitals and Sitra commissioned a study on the suitability of leading international health record systems for Finland’s health-care system. The purpose of the study was to learn what alternatives were available for current health record systems and how a health record system could be best utilised to improve efficiency, patient safety and customer satisfaction within health care.

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Finnish university hospitals and Sitra commissioned a study on the suitability of leading international health record systems for Finland’s health-care system. The purpose of the study was to learn what alternatives were available for current health record systems and how a health record system could be best utilised to improve efficiency, patient safety and customer satisfaction within health care.

A substantial part of Finnish health care personnel will be retiring within the next 10 years at the same time as the demand for health-care services will increase. For this reason, new methods for developing health care are required also in the area of information technology.

The study aimed to identify health record systems that would enable a seamless sharing of information among various users based on one system. The system should also guarantee a high level of patient safety within the system, which will support and steer the work of doctors, nurses and other personnel. The system must be flexible and adjustable to the special needs of different organisations and be suitable for both primary and specialised health care. The advantage of a single system is that doctors, nurses and other personnel would only have to familiarise themselves with one system.

Health record systems best suited for Finland shortlisted

The study assessed the suitability of the leading health record systems on the market for both primary and specialised health care. The study also ascertained whether the companies providing the systems had genuine interest in entering the Finnish market as well as their capacity and willingness to introduce their health record product onto the Finnish market, bearing in mind the language challenges this might present. The assessment took into account the functional scope of the systems as well their functional maturity based on the impartial Garner maturity model.

The study included 13 products, two of which fulfilled the set criteria.

The new health record system represents one percent of the total health-care costs in Finland

Introducing an international health record system on a national level would require a 150–200 million euro annual investment for the next eight years. This represents approximately one per cent of Finland’s total annual health care costs. In addition to licences and hardware, the sum also includes deployment costs, including internal labour and maintenance costs.

Next steps and further analysis of benefits

The study shows that a model of a single health record system such as the ones that recently have been discussed in public are a viable option for Finland. This would require the creation of the roles for a national level purchaser and executor as well as amendments to legislation to enable binding national-level steering. In addition, the project would require a closer study on the suitability of the systems and a cost-benefit analysis. In conjunction with the study, a comparison between the systems now evaluated and the Finnish equivalents currently in use should be carried out.

Further information

Jari Renko, Director of Information Systems, Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa
Tel. +358 50 506 5960, firstname.lastname@hus.fi

Antti Kivelä, Director, Sitra’s Municpal Programme
Tel. +358 40 482 7435, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi

The study is available in electronic format (PDF, in Finnish) »
The summary of the study is available in electronic format (PDF, in Finnish) »