Over 10 million electronic prescriptions have been issued in the NHIS

More than 10 million electronic prescriptions have been issued in the National Health Information System (NHIS). The impressive number was reached in less than 11 months since the National System Integrator Information Services built and launched the centralized online system related to prescribing and dispensing medical products. The electronization of the process significantly reduces the risk of improper dispensing of medicines and relieves patients, general practitioners and pharmacies as much as possible.

The data shows that generally the E-prescription module has become one of the most used electronic services in the country, the Information Services' CEO Ivaylo Filipov said. According to him, the system is another proof of the successful projects that the company has implemented in the recent years. It was built in record time and is one of the best in Europe. Thanks to the electronic prescription and the other modules of the National Health Information System, which we have implemented, the start of the e-health in Bulgaria was given," Ivaylo Filipov added.

The total number of doctors who have issued an electronic prescription is over 4 800, and 3 550 pharmacies across the entire country have successfully connected to the system. Nearly 3 600 pharmacists successfully fulfill electronically prescribed medicaments to patients. The calculations show that in less than 11 months the NHIS subsystem has covered more medical personnel than the set in the project. Sofia is the leader with nearly 1.3 million electronic prescriptions, followed by Plovdiv, Varna, Stara Zagora and Pleven. The module is designed to be as suitable as possible for doctors, pharmacies and software companies. Up to date more than 30 GP`s software developers and 15 pharmacy software companies have been integrated to the system

The digital referral integrated module also reports impressive results. Over 220 000 e-referrals have been issued in the National Health Information System. There are over 3,300 general practitioners working with the system at the moment.

Just in the last year Information Services has implemented several key e-health projects. The electronic health record of the patient was released as part of NHIS. The module allows electronic health records and medical data for each patient such as general health information, data from examinations, therapies, interventions, outpatient sheets, prescription forms, laboratory tests, referrals and more to be recorded and stored. An e-immunization module which contains information about all the vaccines against COVID-19 has also been built. A few days ago the company implemented an electronic examination system, which allows the electronic issuance of outpatient sheets and full documentation and storage of all medical examinations.

"The E-health in Bulgaria was awaited for 15 years, and we have launched the main modules of the National Health Information System in a record time of 4-5 months. We did what many others have failed into, Ivaylo Filipov said.