First Dutch hospital connects to Switchpoint
- 28 May 2008
St Jansdal hospital in Harderwijk, the Netherlands, has become the country’s first hospital able to retrieve patient medication information via the Electronic Medication Record, using software from iSoft.
The hospital, and three pharmacies in the region, are now connected to the Landelijk SchakelPunt (LSP), known as the National Switchpoint in English, which pulls together records from multiple healthcare providers to create a more complete picture of past medical treatment.
The connection to LSP is via iSoft’s Transmural Medication Viewer (TMV). TMV gives specialists and other authorised carers an overview of all prescribed medication of a patient throughout the Netherlands, as recorded in the National Electronic Medication Dossier (EMD).
The EMD is one of the first sub-dossiers of the national Electronic Patient Dossier (EPD) which in the future will consist of all relevant information for the treatment of a patient.
Roland Ekkelenkamp, regional project manager at St Jansdal, said: “iSoft has done an excellent job and realised the connection in a very short time. They have the expertise in-house and have shown how a connection like this should be built. We are proud to be the first hospital that is connected to the National Switchpoint.
Once more pharmacies are connected, iSoft‘s TMV will be rolled out to the accident and emergency unit and other specialist departments.
Ekkelenkamp added: “iSoft has been very flexible during the project. What is more, it has assumed responsibility for the end result. We are very happy with that, because the project will make a significant contribution to the implementation of the national Electronic Patient File.”
To retrieve data, LSP keeps an index of specific patient information kept by each healthcare practitioner. It also maintains a log of who accesses what information, and when. Doctors can only see information pertinent to their specialisations and to which patients have previously granted them access.
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