GERMANY - (HealthTech Wire / News) - The comprehensive investigation by the market researchers at HIMSS Analytics Europe was based on personal interviews conducted with the CIOs of 1,349 hospitals. This represents about 20% of all acute care hospitals in Western Europe plus Poland. The comparison can therefore claim to make meaningful statements about the situation in the individual national markets.
- Market research from HIMSS Analytics Europe based on personal interviews conducted with the CIOs of 1,349 hospitals about 20% of all acute care hospitals in Western Europe plus Poland
- German hospitals have the highest budgets for healthcare IT in comparison with other European countries
- Western European and especially Polish hospitals must start spending more on their IT infrastructure in the future
German hospitals have the highest budgets for healthcare IT
In absolute amounts, German hospitals have the highest budgets for healthcare IT in comparison with other European countries. This is primarily due to the size of the market and the high population of Germany. If one looks at external IT expenditures per capita, however, Spain spends €18 per person, more than the €16 per person available in Germany. In the U.S., per capita hospital IT spending is significantly higher at €53. Though a comparison of these figures is limited due to the differences in healthcare systems, competitive factors, fluctuating exchange rates, etc., one aspect is very clear.
Western European and especially Polish hospitals must start spending more on their IT infrastructure in the future if they want to keep pace with technological advances and the increased electronic networking of the various service providers in the healthcare system.
Increasing purchasing budget and processes for administration drugs
The CIOs surveyed expect a sharp increase in their purchasing budgets in the next five years, especially for new software and upgrades to existing software in health information administration.
The same applies to the processes for administering drugs. Spanish and US hospitals are already much better equipped than German and Italian hospitals with fundamentally important applications and have introduced more far-reaching processes in order to increase safe drug administration.
In Poland, the market penetration rate of electronic prescription applications is less than 10%. It is also worth noting that different software vendors dominate the specific national markets in the countries investigated, with Pan-European vendors not being particularly strong in some markets.
Siemens and SAP are the only vendors represented in the top three providers in more than one country.
All data cited reference the average of the hospital data collected by HAE.
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