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E-health in Switzerland: The laborious adoption of the federal law on electronic health records (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) networks

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  • De Pietro, Carlo
  • Francetic, Igor

Abstract

Within the framework of a broader e-health strategy launched a decade ago, in 2015 Switzerland passed a new federal law on patients’ electronic health records (EHR). The reform requires hospitals to adopt interoperable EHRs to facilitate data sharing and cooperation among healthcare providers, ultimately contributing to improvements in quality of care and efficiency in the health system. Adoption is voluntary for ambulatories and private practices, that may however be pushed towards EHRs by patients. The latter have complete discretion in the choice of the health information to share. Moreover, careful attention is given to data security issues. Despite good intentions, the high institutional and organisational fragmentation of the Swiss healthcare system, as well as the lack of full agreement with stakeholders on some critical points of the reform, slowed the process of adoption of the law. In particular, pilot projects made clear that the participation of ambulatories is doomed to be low unless appropriate incentives are put in place. Moreover, most stakeholders point at the strategy proposed to finance technical implementation and management of EHRs as a major drawback. After two years of intense preparatory work, the law entered into force in April 2017.

Suggested Citation

  • De Pietro, Carlo & Francetic, Igor, 2018. "E-health in Switzerland: The laborious adoption of the federal law on electronic health records (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) networks," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 69-74.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:122:y:2018:i:2:p:69-74
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2017.11.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ben-Assuli, Ofir, 2015. "Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, legal and privacy issues and their implementation in emergency departments," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 287-297.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lester Darryl Geneviève & Andrea Martani & Maria Christina Mallet & Tenzin Wangmo & Bernice Simone Elger, 2019. "Factors influencing harmonized health data collection, sharing and linkage in Denmark and Switzerland: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-44, December.
    2. Segun Akinola & Arnesh Telukdarie, 2023. "Sustainable Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Advancing a Digital Vascular Health Innovation Solution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-23, July.
    3. Burnel, Philippe, 2018. "The introduction of electronic medical records in France: More progress during the second attempt," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(9), pages 937-940.
    4. Al-Sharhan, Salah & Omran, Esraa & Lari, Kamran, 2019. "An integrated holistic model for an eHealth system: A national implementation approach and a new cloud-based security model," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 121-130.
    5. Kovačić Matija & Mutavdžija Maja & Buntak Krešimir, 2022. "e-Health Application, Implementation and Challenges: A Literature Review," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Christine Lewis & Patrice Ollivaud, 2020. "Policies for Switzerland’s ageing society," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1600, OECD Publishing.

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