New Service Introduced to Improve Healthcare

MTI-Hungary Today 2023.08.30.

Albert Schweitzer Hospital-Clinic Institute in Hatvan

Making processes smoother could significantly reduce waiting times in outpatient care, said the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, at a press conference on the introduction of a national electronic outpatient appointment booking system at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital-Clinic Institute in Hatvan, in Nógrád County.

Bence Rétvári stressed that in recent years, the government has made serious efforts to raise the quality of outpatient care. In this context, 54 outpatient clinics have been modernized and 23 new facilities have been built.

The improvements were needed because outpatient clinics are the busiest: before the COVID epidemic, they recorded nearly 70 million patient visits nationwide, and since then they have recorded between 50 and 55 million visits per year,

he added.

However, in addition to renovation and modernization, it is also important to improve organization, as this will make better use of doctors’ and nurses’ time, thus reducing waiting lists, the State Secretary noted. This was the aim of the development of a nationwide, unified outpatient appointment booking system based on the digital platform, the Electronic Health Service Space, which is gradually being introduced in 90 practices across the country.

Fact

The Electronic Health Service Space is a communication platform using cloud-based technology that connects healthcare providers (GPs, outpatient, and inpatient specialist care), pharmacies, and the general public throughout Hungary.

Bence Rétvári tries out the system’s terminal at the press conference on the launch of the system. Photo via MTI/Peter Komka

He stressed that a trial version of the system had already been demonstrated at the National Medical Rehabilitation Institute, but it is now making its debut in Hatvan. In essence, the institution’s IT system, directly linked to the Electronic Health Service Space, receives patients’ requests for appointments via a telephone helpline and then monitors the main aspects of their care. Rétvári stressed that

patients can follow the system through the Health Window (Egészségablak) application, which has been downloaded by more than 2.3 million people so far.

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At the event, Tibor Tóth, medical director of the national outpatient development project, highlighted that the main goal is to create a new, unified operating system compared to the previous period. This will also enable people to receive health services under the same conditions in all outpatient care institutions in the country.

Fact

The Hungarian government has called for proposals on healthcare providers providing publicly funded outpatient care to improve the quality of patient care from a patient safety perspective. The government set out to improve the quality of health infrastructure, to reduce regional disparities in the provision of health infrastructure to improve equal access to care, and to complete the restructuring of health institutions. To achieve these objectives, the government will support the development of healthcare providers providing publicly funded outpatient specialized healthcare services. The government undertakes to give non-repayable grants of up to HUF 300,000,000 (EUR 788,825) for projects meeting the conditions of the call for proposals.

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Via MTI, Featured photo via www.korhazszovetseg.hu