Enhancing patient safety with digital health declarations

The investment stems from an initiative made by the Swedish Association for Thoracic and Intensive Care, which in 2010 established a working group to create a standardised form for health declaration to be filled out by patients prior to surgery. The aim was to eventually digitalise the form and integrate it with the national e-service, 1177 Vårdguiden.

By digitalising the health declarations, the information provided will be of better quality, thus enhancing the safety of our patients. By handling the health declarations electronically, they become more readily accessible and the workload is also reduced for the physicians who previously had to manage them by hand, on paper, says Anders Larsson, chief physician at Centraloperation Gävle.

Tieto’s solution is among the first in Sweden to use the national e-service in this manner. By integrating the surgery planning system Provisio with 1177 Vårdguiden, it is possible for patients to fill out the health declaration electronically in the comfort of their own homes, where they not only have access to their own medicines, but also the support of their families.

Once completed, the health declarations are made available to the relevant medical staff via Provisio, ensuring that the physicians will receive the right type of information at the right time.

The development of electronic health declarations is in line with Sweden’s national action plan which promotes an increased involvement of the individual, smarter e-health services and greater collaboration between institutions.

One of the aims with the digitalisation is to ensure that patients have access to all the information registered about them and that they have the possibility of actively participating when it comes to their own health care.

Other important goals include ensuring that that the medical staff are equipped with the appropriate working tools and that decision-makers have access to relevant fact-based information material.

Pilot tests of the solution regarding electronic health declarations filled out prior to surgeries have been carried out at different clinics and was rolled out in the whole of the Gävleborg Region in September, 2016. The project was carried out in collaboration between the Gävleborg Region, the 1177 Vårdguiden e-services, the Swedish Association for Thoracic and Intensive Care, and Tieto.

At Tieto we’re proud of taking yet another step forward in our drive to include the patient in the information flow when it comes to their health care. With a simple click, the physician gets instant access to information provided by the patient, something which is essential when determining whether surgery can be carried out or not.

This is a clear example of how digitalisation can make life easier for the different parties involved in the health care chain, says Cecilia Täkte, Head of Healthcare & Welfare Solutions at Tieto.