If you want new health services you belong to the Information Society. The health sector is one of the most sensitive areas in which the Information Society intervenes.

Contents

Major health projects

Social solidarity

Thanks to the new online health services which speed up the search for data about patients and their medical history, new diagnostic applications and new technological equipment, the Information Society is providing practical support to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Major health projects

The regional structure of the health system with 17 regional health systems also determines the allocation of major projects of health services under the InfoSoc Operational Programme (Measure 2.6/27). In particular, with the support of Information Society SA, the management of regional health services across Greece are implementing projects related to:

• Interconnection between all healthcare and welfare services in the regions with secure access, and exchange and integration of data between various healthcare units, particularly primary healthcare units, via a secure network which will be created for the health sector by SYZEFXIS.
• The establishment of an integrated hospital information system (HIS) which will be installed, configured, interconnected, with existing medical information management applications and will operate at regional health system hospitals.
• Installation and implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system which will cover the management needs and procedures of regional health systems, hospitals and health centres (budgets, costing, analytical and general ledgers, procurement, payrolling, HR management, accounts receivable and payable, fixed assets, accounting, protocol, pharmacy management, warehouse – office supplies management, biomedical technology and other resource management, operations office – patient bed management, patient accounts office, out patient and evening clinic appointment management, catering, emergencies and out patient clinics, medical decisions and online referrals form, etc.). The applications which relate to hospitals will cover the administrative – financial module and the patient management module of an integrated HIS. The ERP will communicate with all other modules (medical-nursing, LIES and MIS systems) of hospitals and health centres via a internationally acceptable interoperability protocol in order to achieve integration into a uniform healthcare information system. The ERP system will have open architecture and provide full coverage of management of day-to-day work flows, information and statistics for expert staff and management, and a high degree of security at staff and data level. 
• Implementation and operation of regional data centres for the regional health systems.
• Training of healthcare professionals (doctors-nurses and administrative staff) in all applications and new working methods, based in the IT system at clinic and healthcare unit level.

The projects seeks to improve services provided to citizens and professionals overall and to improve management of national health system resource procedures:

• Financial management of regional health systems and the procurement of goods and services 
• Patient admissions for treatment 
• Online referral forms 
• Individualised prescriptions per patient 
• Patient referrals for treatment 
• Patient release procedure 
• Treatment of patients at out patient and evening clinics 
• Accident and Emergency 
• Appointments and applications.

The expected results from successful implementation of these projects include:

• Establishment of robust healthcare systems at regional level 
• Making primary healthcare and public health key elements of the healthcare system 
• Administrative-financial monitoring of healthcare units and central healthcare administrative services at regional level in Greece. 
• Organised information enabling citizens to effectively communicate with healthcare providers 
• Rational allocation and effective management of human and financial resources within the healthcare system 
• Reduction in healthcare unit operating costs 
• Support for health centre functions as autonomous administrative units 
• Improvements in the quality of care provided 
• Assessment of health needs for the overall population and proposals for measures to effectively confront them 
• Reliable diagnoses and decision-making 
• Reduced waiting time for patients 
• Reduction in unnecessary examinations 
• Better organised hospitals 
• Increased productivity 
• Calculation of the cost of treatment by monitoring cost centres 
• Developing a database for integrated patient health files 
• Better service for citizens.

Lastly, the beneficiaries of these projects are:

• Doctors and other medical and paramedical staff at healthcare units within Greece’s regional health systems thanks to support provided for their day-to-day work (examinations, diagnoses, etc.).
• Regional health systems since they will be in a better position to implement their healthcare plans based on actual, updated data such as data on improved levels of health among the population, overall mortality rates for various population groups, indicators for epidemic outbreaks, etc.  In this way citizens will once again benefit since they will reap the benefits of reorganisation in the system and the improved services provided. 
• The Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity since it will be able to access updated information on public health and the provision of healthcare services. 
• Citizens: thanks to the provision of quality health and welfare services (reduced time to medical examination results, preparation of a basic medical history, realistic waiting times for appointments for examinations), the provision of direct channels of communication between healthcare units and citizens (a single number for medical appointments, use of email), reduced waiting times for the health service (waiting list checks, reduced waiting times at out patient clinics), and the removal of administrative inertia.

These projects will be implemented via actions such as:

• Technical Support Consultant Services
• Active involvement of healthcare professionals from each regional healthcare system (working groups) in the planning, development and operation of projects. 
• Services to actively support user groups in the regional health systems in managing the PKD, the information systems and services covered by all applications used by healthcare units and central services of the regional health systems as well as new procedures which may arise for operation of healthcare units.
• Roll-over or input of data to all modules. 
• Quality assurance for system facilities 
• Supply and assignment of the user licences needed for the database 
• Supply of support services for problem-free system implementation 
• Interconnection of existing applications in use.

Budget for regional healthcare system projects: € 70 million.

Social Solidarity

The InfoSoc Operational Programme is cofinancing a study to determine the most suitable system for evaluating disability in Greece and to design an IT system which will cover the process of scoring- calculating the degree of function disabled persons have and for managing the online welfare folder for disabled persons which will hosted on the Ministry of Health’s portal which constitute the core of the function fiche. 

The study is being implemented by a cross-disciplinary team under the management and supervision of the National Social Care Council with wide-ranging exchanges of views being gathered from stakeholders at special events.

Budget: €316 146

Moreover, as a result of the study, a project to develop an IT system to classify and evaluate disabilities for the purposes of issuing a disability card for the entire state is being co-financed.  The system will manage the degree of function among disabled persons who have been assessed based on the findings of the reports prepared by specialist assessors.  The overall system will be based on mature and open technologies, so that it interacts with the systems of disabled support groups which provide services based on the disability card.  As a result of this project the issue of signing a bilateral cooperation agreements for the automatic exchange of data and use of the system by agencies such as insurance providers, Hellenic Post and CSCs will be examined.

Budget: € 289 100

Support for the visually impaired via ICT at the Blind Training and Rehabilitation Centre

This projects creates a suitable environment for the visually impaired and professional groups involved with them to access and learn about available information technologies.  Via information technological aids and technologies the ability to access and manage information of interest to individuals at social and professional level is fostered resulting in improved self-esteem, sociability and integration into the Information Society.

Budget: € 427 986

Logging system and computer support for the National Direct Social Assistance Coordination Centre

This project seeks to improve the operational capacity of the Centre by extending existing ICT and by producing, installing and operating a modern incident management centre.

Budget €186 794