Patient online services in Estonia EHTEL 2012 Symposium: Fact not Fiction Katre Karik; Analyst at the SUSTAINS project Kelli Podošvilev, MSc; SUSTAINS Project manager Peeter Ross, MD, PhD; ehealth expert Estonian ehealth Foundation 06.12.2012 Brussels, Belgium
Content Experience of National Health Information System (HIS) access to country-wide HIS Patient Portal Hospital experience patients access to all their medical data and on-line booking services by using East Tallinn Central Hospital information systems patient portal called ipatient
Facts about Estonia Basic facts: Population is 1,3 million inhabitants Area 45 227 km² Capital is Tallinn, first mentioned 1154 Member state of the European Union since 2004 Native language is Estonian Currency EURO Income tax 21% (flat tax) Health Care System Compulsory health insurance payed by employers; 13% of payroll tax Health care costs make up to 7% of GDP Healthcare providers are private, municipal or governmental. Family practitioners are private entrepreneurs Hospital system publicly owned private hospitals: 3 regional hospitals, 4 central hospitals, 8 local hospitals
Legal environment of ehealth The Health Services Organisation Act regulates the development and maintenance of the health information system Lay down the necessary requirements to the patient, health service provider, document standards, etc. All healthcare providers must send certain health data to national HIS The set of documents is defined by the law Access only to licensed medical professionals The attending doctor concept Patient has the right to close own data (opt out) Citizen can Access their own data Declare intentions and preferences Monitor logs
Security and electronic authentication Security issues were profoundly discussed while developing the HIS The ethical committee was created to lead the discussions of patients rights and to select the proper system for the HIS The ethical committee suggested that the most suitable for the HIS would be the opt out system, which means that: there is no need for the patients consent while sending the data to the HIS patients can deny access to their medical data gathered to the HIS. Patients can declare it in the Patient Portal
Security and electronic authentication The access to HIS is secured by using the electronic identity card (ID-card) solution issued by the state ID-card is a compulsory and primary document for the purposes of personal identification in Estonia All attempts to view health care data are monitored both by patients and Estonian E-health Foundation In case of the suspicions of the unlawful access to the data the necessary actions are taken immediately
Acceptance Over 90% of Hospital discharge letters are digital eprescription covers 94% of issued prescriptions Ambulatory case summaries sending level is low Patient portal usage is low 47 715 unique visitors (3,6% of population) 995 263 persons have documents (75% of population)
E-services in Patient Portal Viewing medical documents Discharge letters Ambulatory case summaries Results of different examinations (radiology, endoscopy etc) Vaccination information Children health monitoring reports Give informed consent for Organ donation Blood transfusion Donating ones body after death for teaching purposes Trustees to view ones medical documents etc. Monitor logs
Patient Portal. Results of the first four years The growth of HIS use has been slow but it is growing steadily The total number of medical documents in HIS is 8 203 855 The total number of patients having documents is 995 263 (75% of the population) The population in Estonia is 1,3 million inhabitants
ipatient. Hospital portal for citizen Hospital has opened its health information system to the patients East Tallinn Central Hospital Currently 622 beds (incl 457 active care beds) Hospital covers most of the specialities (lacking only neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, nephrology, haematology, children diseases and psychiatry) 31 298 patients hospitalised annually (2010) 492 735 outpatient visits annually (2010) 1,4 million lab test, 257 000 radiology exams annually Patients have access to all of their medical data (including images) and for e-booking services by using ipatient portal since the end of 2007
E-services in ipatient Better, quicker and secured access to the electronic patient record medical history images results of exams and analyses digitalized paper-based health record etc. Booking, rescheduling and cancelling of the appointments times SMS and e-mail reminders of appointment times Enables patients to share the information in the EPR with other clinical specialists ID-card for authentication and access
Unique patients using Patient Portal and ipatient in a year 30000 25000 20000 22280 22786 19534 26423 25020 15000 13143 13883 Patient Portal ipatient 10000 5000 2490 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 *2012 January - August
Unique monthly logins to Patient Portal 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 2009 2010 2011 2012
Unique monthly logins to ipatient 10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 2009 2010 2011 2012
2847 2534 2485 2153 2337 2420 2922 3281 3203 3306 3491 3422 5023 6014 5759 6742 6530 6219 6890 7970 7073 7611 7678 7651 Unique monthly logins to Patient Portal and ipatient in 2011 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 Patient Portal ipatient 1000 0
Users of the ipatient portal (2007 2011) 100.000 90.000 80.000 70.000 60.000 58.948 70.519 74947 90264 50.000 40.000 30.000 20.000 10.000 0 46.612 38.232 15.163 19.582 11.571 15317 4.419 8.380 179 63 116 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Mehi Male Naisi Femal e Total Kokku 2007 2011
The aim of ipatient portal usage (2008 2010) 12000 10000 8000 6000 Viewing of EPR Booking 4000 2000 0 2008 2009 2010
Logins to ipatient by age and gender in 2012 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 Men Women All 5000 0 *2012 January - August
Viewing images by ipatient. Unique patients per year 2500 2235 2000 1570 1500 1000 974 972 500 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 *2012 January - August
Viewing of radiology images (2010) During 12 months (Jan-Dec 2010) there were 3750 (11/day) patients accessing their images from outside the hospital.
Difficulties After launching ipatient the main difficulties have been: General acceptance of hospital personnel to share medical data in EPR with patient Much attention had to be paid on the security and electronic authentication of the EPR users In some cases users could not log in as their IDcard software or certificates had not been updated Also some data saving problems during the appointment time booking were observed Not all internet browsers were supported
ipatient. Results of the first five years Hospital experience shows that the main users of the health care information are younger females the non traditional group of patients of the hospital Other age groups are following However the data also shows that men are less interested in viewing their health data
Patient Portal Conclusion of the first four years During the first three years of the HIS deployment there has been put more effort to the involvement of health care providers and physicians as they are the source of health care data (sending documents) Although patients have been involved from the first day of the HIS, then it can be concluded that during the first years there has not been enough data to attract majority of patients
The conclusion Improve the communication between different parties To empower patients and motivate doctors to use the gathered information It is important to motivate physicians to tell patients about the possibilities to view and to be aware of their basic health data It is important to inform patients about these possibilities and to support them actively inform their physicians that they know how to use their health data. Any views from the audience would be welcome
Thank you for your attention! Peeter.Ross@e-tervis.ee