Tieto’s national patient overview solution takes further steps in Sweden

Published: 06/03/2009

ÖREBRO, SWEDEN - (HealthTech Wire / News) - The Örebro County Council and the Municipality of Örebro have started to use the Swedish National Patient Summary solution (known as NPÖ), supplied by Tieto. The national roll-out plan is being worked on in parallel with further development and evaluation of the NPÖ service.

In its initial phase, the solution will be used by 500 end-users including doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and staff at two private nursing homes. The solution gives authorized care staff access to critical patient information, irrespective of the organization they belong to, the time and the place. With an overall picture of the patient, the care provider has better data to decide about diagnoses, treatment and follow-up.

The National Patient Summary is a vital part of the programme to implement the National IT Strategy for the healthcare and welfare sector in Sweden. The aim is to improve patient security and quality of care by delivering the solution nationwide in stages.

Eva Leach Elfgren, Project Manager of the National Patient Summary, said: “We put a lot of focus on continuous delivery and ensuring that the information we produce benefits the care providers. Time is vital to an extensive project like the National Patient Summary. We can’t just keep developing, we have to get out there into the real world and make sure the service is truly useful for the healthcare and welfare sector. That is our highest priority.”

District doctor Inger Nordin-Olsson said: “With NPÖ we can access patient information that our patients think we have had access to all the time. When I meet my patient here at the private nursing home, I can see information documented in the patient register at the central hospital.”

The NPÖ will make real-time patient information available on a national level to county councils, local authorities and private healthcare providers. In a later phase, Swedish residents will also be given the opportunity to access their own medical records via the internet. The solution is delivered by Tieto as an all-in-one service. It comprises implementation, development, application management and hosting and is based on the standard InterSystems HealthShare™ software.

“Tieto is deeply involved with this national initiative. I’m pleased, that we have now reached the first step of this complex and multidimensional project. Most probably we will face some challenges on the way. However, as we have excellent collaboration between the different parties, I’m convinced we will be able to solve any challenges together with our customer,” states Bjørn Myrvold, head of Healthcare Scandinavia in Tieto.

“We are grateful for the efforts put into this project by doctors, nurses and other staff in Örebo and SVR. Without their efforts we could not have reached this important milestone in the NPÖ project,” said Christer Bergh, responsible for Tieto’s healthcare business in Sweden.

The agreement regarding the NPÖ solution was made by Tieto and Sjukvårdsrådgivningen SVR AB (the Swedish Healthcare Advisory Organization) in March 2008. The agreement is worth at least EUR 12.2 million and runs for five years with an option for a two-year extension.