As part of transforming the healthcare system, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is building a modern electronic system that will help healthcare facilities work more efficiently and make wise use of the time of both patients and medical staff. To ensure continuous development and the use of the latest technologies, we are deliberately building a competitive market of medical information systems (MIS).
Fourteen MIS have already connected to the system. We expect their number to grow.
For more than a year and a half, thanks to an agreement between business and the Ministry of Health, MIS have been providing services to facilities free of charge to support the healthcare reform. After all, building the electronic health care system (eHealth) is a shared effort. Currently, the basic functions related to registering a facility and its doctors and signing patients’ declarations with a family doctor are available in MIS free of charge. This will remain so until most declarations have been signed.
But from mid-2019, every facility will have to pay for MIS services in full. Creating and supporting the new, more complex functions that will soon appear cannot be free, otherwise they will never work well. Thousands of facilities across the country use medical information systems. Apart from the basic functions, all other functions offered by MIS already require payment. Each MIS has its own pricing policy and range of products for healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities are already choosing the MIS they consider most effective for them in terms of price and functionality.
After all, facilities are becoming autonomous, receiving more funding, improving their efficiency and planning their own activities, including their finances. A medical information system is as much a working tool of a healthcare facility as an ECG or ultrasound machine, or an accounting or operating system.
We encourage you to weigh all the benefits and costs of this choice and to plan your 2019 budgets accordingly.