Autor: Ulrich Seidl
Autor: Ulrich Seidl
You know, recently I had to take my wife to the hospital. The admission appointment had been scheduled weeks in advance. The registration process was like being at a hotel reception. There were definitely two or three ladies at the computer, busy filling out and printing forms. After the insurance information and personal details were recorded, one form after another was printed and presented to my wife for signature—without giving her much time to understand what she was even signing. Everything was included: the DRG reimbursement rates (several pages), patient information on elective medical services, the elective service agreement, an agreement for the case that the elective doctor is unavailable, and even an application for the elective service “Internet.” Additionally, there were patient information sheets on discharge management, a brochure about co-payment obligations, and a payment request for those with statutory insurance, as well as another information sheet for patient surveys.
Now, everything is fine and good. But nowadays, everyone is trying to profile themselves under the guise of digitization, and I wonder why digitization in healthcare, especially in hospital registration, has not really arrived yet. Why not digitize the registration forms for a planned hospital stay and send them to the patient in advance for review?
Advantages:
a) The patient can read the content thoroughly and already know what they want to clarify during registration at the hospital or what services they are consenting to.
b) Paperless forms save time and costs.
c) Forms already digitally confirmed by the patient can be archived by the hospital. In the case of a
subsequent hospital stay, they do not need to be processed again if the data has not changed.
d) The increase in efficiency during admission relieves hospitals from rising personnel costs and
reduces the burden on the insured with the goal of lowering health insurance contributions.
The topic of data security can be clarified in advance through consent to data processing, the right to withdraw consent, and corresponding information. Even with just 10% approval (1.8 million) of the 18.9 million patients treated in general hospitals in 2017 (source: Federal Statistical Office), and a time savings of 5 minutes per registration (conservatively estimated), a significant amount of savings should result.
In my wife’s case: since she had to go to the hospital several times in quick succession for a few days, the registration process was repeated a total of three times. The personal data already recorded during the initial admission was taken again at each subsequent admission. The forms handed out for signature during the initial admission were also reprocessed, printed, presented for signature, and given as a copy. This was not just two or three pages, but a small stack of paper. In another hospital three years ago, this process was repeated six times. The copies now fill half a binder.
In other places, they are much further along in the field of digitization in healthcare. In Saudi Arabia, for example, there have been no paper prescriptions from doctors for quite some time. There, you receive a unique number, with which you go to the pharmacy and pick up your medications. I am sure that the registration process in hospitals there also runs similarly in a digital manner.