The new Clinical Patient Administration System will go a long way towards having a paperless healthcare service across the public and private sectors, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia said yesterday.
Replacing the Patient Administration System developed in the early 1990s, the technologically advanced system integrates the primary, secondary and tertiary health systems in Malta and Gozo, including hospitals, residential homes and health centres.
Described by Dr Farrugia as the service’s “backbone”, it enables professionals to directly input patients’ updated information, including blood results, various tests carried out on patients, and X-rays, which would then be accessible at the click of a button, allowing medical staff to see “the whole picture”.
The system shows how right it was to cancel the direct order we had found
He said this contributed to patient safety as more informed diagnosis could be made and there would be more accountability.
“This is the gateway to health as it allows for a patient-centric healthcare system,” he said. Plans are in hand to extend the system to family doctor clinics.
Developed by Health Ministry IT consultant Mark Sammut and a team of technical and medical staff from Mater Dei, the CPAS was developed “in-house” to save money.
Dr Farrugia said he had scrapped a €2.5 million maintenance contract for the old system “which was not addressing modern exigencies,” while Malta Information Technology Agency had cancelled another contract for a similar system worth more than €20 million.
“This system shows how right it was to cancel the direct order we had found when we took office,” Dr Farrugia said, as he defended his decision to appoint his IT consultant.
Dr Sammut, a one-time aide to former European Commissioner John Dalli, explained that the new system will facilitate the digitisation of old medical records currently stored in large warehouses.
Moreover, it was versatile enough to be constantly upgraded according to exigencies.
Dr Farrugia added that the system would enable administrators to stagger hospital appointments and ensure there was better bed management because of the overview it gave of the hospital’s situation, such as patients’ condition and length of stay.
The authorities, he said, were also upgrading the IT system to include the management of medicine supplies, including stock control and the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme.
With the introduction of e-ID cards, which will include an information electronic chip, they would be able to introduce e-prescriptions, where prescriptions are issued in a secure, online service without paper.
Replying to a question by The Sunday Times of Malta on the hospital bed shortage, Dr Farrugia said this situation was slowly being solved with the creation of almost 60 additional beds at Mater Dei.
More beds will be added in the coming months and new bed management systems have been introduced.