Polish and Slovak electronic health care (eHealth)

Abstract

Electronic health care (eHealth) can be described as an efficient and secure way of using information and communication technologies with the use of various applications, computers, mobile devices to provide healthcare, increasing the quality of life, and contributing to the creation of financial savings in the healthcare sector. The National Health Information Centre (NCZI) is responsible for the implementation of informatization and computerization of health care in the Slovak Republic (SR). The founder of the NCZI is the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. In the SR, the eHealth system with the following functions has been implemented since 1 January 2018: a) ePN, b) electronic services related to the birth of a child, c) connection to the system, d) electronic patient health record, e) eExamination, f) eOrder, g) Patient summary, h) electronic vaccination record, ch) My eHealth application, i) eAlerts, j) eLab, and also k) ePrescription. The implementation of eHealth in Poland is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and the Center for Health Information Systems established by it. The following functions of the e-health system have been implemented in Poland: a) Internet Patient Account, b) Electronic prescription, c) Electronic issuance of sick leave certificate (e-zwolnienie), d) Electronic referral for health services (e-skierowanie), e) Teleconsultation, f) Electronic patient appointment service (e-kolejka), g) Electronic health records [4, 6, 7, 9, 20]. The aim of the article is to report the state of eHealth in Poland and Slovakia, to describe various functions and, based on available studies, to describe patients' opinions on the introduction of e-prescribing.