(Dagbladet): On a fixed date each month receives 17 percent of Norwegian GPs’ patient lists.
On floppy disk!
After having won the CMO bidding process in 2014, got the Stavanger-based firm Systor Vest responsibility to sort, store and letter post sensitive information.
Dinosaur Technology
– Since then we have sent out nearly 19,000 floppy disks to Norwegian GPs, said general manager Find Espen Gundersen.
disks, which can hold up to 1.44 megabytes, contains Navs freshest patient lists, with patients’ name, address and identity number.
This storage method has long since expired. The last floppy disk was produced by Sony as far back as in March 2011.
Stone Tablet Communication
Healthcare has undergone extensive technological upgrades to meet higher demands for efficiency, safety and ease of use.
It is Norwegian Health Network which has been commissioned to facilitate the most secure and efficient electronic exchange of information between actors in the healthcare sector.
– But it does not help to have a communication line if the systems do not understand each other. The various systems do not just mean the same language, says CEO of Norwegian Health Network, Håkon Grimstad.
The problem is all the different IT systems and individual ways to keep a journal on.
Offline into forward time
The actors agree that communication in health care is inefficient, but would not comment on who is to blame for that part of the Health Norway goes offline in forward time.
– No. , I will not speculate about, says Grimstad.
The head of the Public Chamber of Physicians, Kari Sollien, denies that there is any technological reluctance among Norwegian GPs, but admits that the health network is not optimally utilized yet.
– We are all agreed that a well-functioning IT system is our most important tool in forward time. This is something we use a lot of resources and should be good at.
There are GPs who must pay for the necessary upgrades.
Taking security concerns
Director NorSIS, Roger Johnsen, fear diskettkommunikasjonens inertia more than safety hazard.
– This is not about the kind of person information itself is sensitive. What is critical is the time it takes to transmit it!
Since the updated patient lists are sent out on a fixed day each month, it may take as much as two weeks a patient to a different GP.
Something which at worst can put the lives and health at risk.
– It is both inconvenient and time consuming to transmit information in this way. There are far safer and more effective ways to send this type of information, so as to safeguard both the enhanced security and ensures that those who need info get it quickly and correctly, says Johnsen.
Health Directorate’s target is to liquidate floppy scheme within the year.
Hoping for 100 percent
If the goal of a full digital platform reached the Directorate relies on “floppy doctors’ treasurer floppy drive for good.
– The core of health care is today. All private and public hospitals, GPs, all 428 municipalities, all 19 counties, pharmacies and 90% of