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The total number of registered electronic examinations by general practitioners and specialists in outpatient care through the National Health Information System (NHIS) in one day exceeded 80,000. This is an absolute record since the launch of the module in January 2022, when an average of 15,000 e-examinations per day were registered. Furthermore, almost 40,000 e-referrals have been registered today. In comparison, since the launch of the e-referral on 8 December 2020, an average of some 1,000 electronic documents have been issued per day.
Today, new functionalities have been successfully implemented in the NHIS, which enable issuance of e-referrals for consultation, specialized activities, medical expertise and hospitalization. Electronic referrals fully replace the paper equivalents that have been used so far. A nomenclature for reporting results to the NHIS for medical-diagnostic activities from referrals for laboratory procedures has been developed and fully built. Updated versions of modules for e-prescription and e-examinations have been implemented in the system.
"With the implementation of the new functionalities in the NHIS we complete the digitalization of outpatient care", the Information Services CEO Ivaylo Filipov said. According to him, this is an extremely important step towards the introduction of e-health in Bulgaria, which significantly improves the quality of healthcare services and allows institutions to make timely strategic management decisions.
The new functionalities of the system allow doctors and laboratories to send laboratory procedures results directly to NHIS and thus they are available in the patient's e-medical record. Data in the electronic medical record is accessible only by a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) and is available to the patient at any time of the day. Thus, every health insured person has the results of his examinations, medical exams, prescribed medicines, issued e-prescriptions etc.
Part of the software developers, that offer medical software have not yet integrated their products with the NHIS or have not updated their customers’ software, which creates difficulties in the issuing of e-documents through the system. On the other hand, some general practitioners and outpatient care professionals have not been trained by their software providers to operate with e-referrals and have to learn on the go, which slows down their work. Information Services has provided all the necessary information for running timely trainings and for updating clients’ software several months ago.
"The next big step for the e-health in Bulgaria is the full digitalization of hospital care, which is scheduled for August and September," Ivaylo Filipov said.