Hospital referrals will only be issued electronically as of August 1

From 1 August, the referral for admission to hospitals will be issued electronically, the Ministry of Health reminds. Medical care providers were given the opportunity to issue electronic referrals for hospital admissions in a test environment and then in real - before the official start of the process.

The team of "Information Services" company provided full assistance to the medical institutions and software developers in the implementation of electronic referrals for inpatient care. All the company's branches in the country were involved in the process, and in the first days of August specialists from the company will also be present on site in the hospitals, the health ministry said.

As of July 28, the number of issued electronic referrals for admissions to hospital treatments is over 44 thousand, which shows that the medical institutions have already synchronized their medical software and have accumulated experience in working with the electronic referral. Among the hospitals that admitted patients through electronic referrals are not only large university hospitals and regional hospitals, but also those in smaller settlements such as Aitos, Chirpan, Kazanlak, Mezdra, Botevgrad, Etropole, Dulovo, etc.

The introduction of electronic referral for the inpatient care will facilitate both the patients, who will no longer have to carry paper documents, and the medical institutions themselves, where the registration of a patient will take seconds instead of the current average of 15 minutes per patient. The entire process from the patient's admission to the healthcare facility through diagnosis and treatment to the issuing of medical report will become digital, with all medical documents forming part of the relevant patient record. The National Health Information System (NHIS) will provide data on the hospitals structures, number of patients, their diagnoses and when they were admitted, how they were treated. The NHIS will also provide real-time information on available and occupied beds not only at the level of the health facility, but also at the level of the clinic/ward.

By the end of the year, there will also be an upgrade of the patient file with the entry of all medical records from the beginning of the current year; the introduction of an e-patient record or access to the medical record; the coverage of dental care and the introduction of electronic protocols for expensive medication.

As of 28 July, nearly 19 million e-referrals for examination, nearly 8 million e-prescriptions, about 2 million e-referrals for laboratory tests and nearly 1.4 million referrals for consultation have been issued.