Electronic prescription
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Electronic prescription is the registration of prescriptions and referrals, exclusively by accredited doctors and authorized officials of health service units, to all citizens who have AMKA (Social Security Register Number).
The system of electronic prescription of IDIKA started its operation gradually in the year 2011, with the initial certification of doctors and the inclusion of certain insurance funds. On 31-12-2011 a Joint Ministerial Decision was signed, according to which all doctors of Greece – regardless if they are contracted to EOPYY or not- can prescribe the medicines electronically to their patients.
The main limitations for the use of the Online Registration and Prescription Enforcement (EKES) application are the following:
· The application is used over the Internet.
· The application is used only by authorized users (registered users who have acquired a user account on the service).
· If the patient does not have an AMKA, it is impossible to register an electronic prescription and thus to carry out prescriptions for medicines.
Doctors can register prescriptions of medicines for their patients. Patients can then supply the medicinal products by submitting the prescription to the pharmacy of their choice.
The procedure for prescribing the examinations of patients is similar. The doctor create a referral, which the patient can bring it to a Diagnostic Center or Hospital, in order to be examined.
Also, doctors can retrieve a patient’s prescription/referral history from both their own unit and a full history from all health care providers.
In 2020, the Intangible Prescribing was introduced, which was one of the first new digital services of gov.γr.
The intangible prescription replaces the paper-based prescription. The barcode of the prescription comes to the patient electronically by text and/or email. The same applies to referrals for medical examination.
The benefits for all are important for the following reasons:
· Unnecessary visits to health structures are avoided (especially during the pandemic).
· The doctor has the opportunity to prescribe at home visits without the need of a printer.
· Safety and transparency of the entire prescription process, as well as of the referral medical tests, is achieved, since the patient is informed at that time by a message on his mobile.
· It achieves paper economy while protecting the environment.
· Patients are given the opportunity to take their medication anywhere in the country and are found only with the prescription number on their mobile phone.
In this way, a particularly important and sensitive procedure was simplified for all concerned (citizens, doctors, pharmacists), while ensuring security, transparency and privacy at all individual stages.
The system is operated and supervised by IDIKA AE, a supervised body of the Ministry of Digital Governance, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health.
Moreover, since August 2021 those who are registered in the intangible prescription have been able to use MyHealth app.
Through the application, citizens gain quick, easy and secure access to their data on electronic and intangible prescription since 2012.
For the MyHealth application, IDIKA received from the Global Innovation and Technology Services Association WITSA the 1st prize in the category “Innovative Solutions for Health” (Innovative Health Solutions) for the Public Sector, within the framework of the World Conference on Innovation and Technology.
Finally, the intangible prescription was also exploited in the National Vaccination Campaign.
In particular, during the period of prioritization of age groups, those who were enrolled at ehealth.gov.gr received SMS with pre-booked appointments, which they could accept or modify. Millions of appointments were proposed swiftly and accurately, contributing to the smooth functioning of the vaccination program.
More than 4 million citizens have subscribed to the intangible prescription.