Availability of national electronic medication list. 

Context in source publication

Context 1

... indicator is identical to an OECD indicator, but measured at a national level. Figure 2 shows that by the end of May, 2014, all the Nordic countries have a national ePrescription service in place. In Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, ePrescription is available at a national level, i.e., at all public hospitals within the country, for all GP ́s, and at every pharmacy in the country. In Finland, the roll-out of ePresciption to the private sector is currently on its way. In Norway, all pharmacies, general practitioners, private specialists and emergency doctors, all (non-hospital) doctors allowed to prescribe drugs have access to ePrescription, and soon also dentists. The indicator, which is identical to the OECD indicator, measures the availability of information about medication that has been previously prescribed, or dispensed at another institution. However, the contents of this indicator vary in the Nordic countries. A national list of prescribed and dispensed medication is not necessarily the same as the patient ́s current medication list, since for example the medication dispensed while admitted to a hospital or purchased without a prescription may not be included. Figure 3 shows the availability of national electronic medication lists in the Nordic countries. In Denmark, the medication list has been 100% available since 2010, including all types of prescriptions made outside hospitals as well as all medications dispensed both in and outside the hospital. In Finland, the national prescription database shows prescribed and dispensed medication, but not those administered during hospital stay. Patients can preclude health professionals from accessing the data. The national list of prescriptions does not include prescriptions on paper or prescriptions that have been made by phone, nor prescriptions related to social care. From 2015, the national KANTA - system will generate a comprehensive list of current medication for the patient from the prescription database and data from individual electronic patient record (EPR) systems, including medication administered during hospital stay. In Iceland, the availability of the national list of prescribed and dispensed medicine is 100%, since 2014, and includes all ePrescriptions, both prescribed and dispensed, as well as some paper and telephone prescriptions. All paper and telephone prescriptions will be available in 2015. As in Finland, the medication list does not include the medication administered during hospital stay. In Norway, a national medication list is to be found in the “Kjernejournal” (Summary care record), and it may also be accessed via the national portal “helsenorge.no”. “Kjernejournal” is running as (in 2014) a pilot implementation in two regions. “Kjernejournal” will contain a list of the medicines the patient has been prescribed (both ePrescriptions and paper prescriptions) in Norwegian pharmacies. Medicines the patient purchased without a prescription, received at an emergency department, hospital / nursing home or purchased abroad will not appear. Prescriptions that have been dispensed are stored in the “Kjernejournal” for three years. In Sweden, the list of medications that have been dispensed to the patient has been available since 2012. The patient decides if the doctor is allowed to see the information in the database. A consent is needed from the patient. Very few patients i.e., 3 - 4.000 patients out of 9 million actually choose to hide their information, This indicator shows the availability of services that enable electronic medication renewal at the national level. The indicator is identical to the OECD indicator. Figure 4 shows the availability of electronic medication renewal services in the Nordic countries. In Denmark, there is 100% availability of electronic medication renewal in primary care at a national level. In Finland, this is currently an organizational activity. The patient needs to contact the pharmacy or primary health care centre to ask for a renewal, although many organizations provide an electronic web portal to mediate the request. In Iceland, only a few health care institutions offered this service in 2014. However, this is currently being implemented and is expected to be at a national level before end of 2015. In Norway, this service has not been established at the national level. General practitioners can offer service functionalities for patients depending on what portal provider they have chosen. In Sweden, electronic medication renewal has been available since 2012 in the national service "My healthcare contacts (MVK)". MVK is a citizen web portal that enables secure communication between patient/ consumer/ customer and healthcare and longterm care. The patient can book and rebook appointments, renew prescriptions, order a copy of his patient record and in some county councils also access it. This indicator concerns electronic services that enable patients to view their own medication data. We present data for services at a national level. The indicator is identical to the OECD indicator. Figure 5 shows the availability of patients` viewing electronically of own medication data. In Denmark, patients have had the opportunity to view their own medication data covering the past two years since 2009. In the beginning, it only enabled viewing of prescriptions made outside hospitals. Since 2013, viewings of prescriptions made by hospital physicians have been included. In Finland, all patients now have access to all prescriptions. This Norway service established did not this exist service in Iceland in 2012 until 2013 November via “My 2014. prescriptions” Currently, in it helsenorge.no, only includes but ePrescribed the service medications. currently However, only enables plans viewing are of already the most underway recent prescriptions to enhance made these services by GPs. to include also paper- and telephone prescribed medication. In Sweden this service has been available since 2012 as a national service through “My healthcare contacts” (MVK). Availability for patients viewing of medication data that (public/private sector) professionals have prescribed is a feature of ...