Ministry inks deal to ‘digitalize’ hospitals

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Health Ministry has taken a major step to kicking off its “digital hospitals” project, inking a collaboration deal with a European non-governmental organization that will monitor the process.

The ministry and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), an organization offering global-scale accreditation for IT use in hospitals, have undertaken a five-year-term collaboration, the ministry said yesterday in a written statement.

The agreement marks a milestone in the ministry’s plans to establish “digital” and “paperless” hospitals, which were pledged as part of its 2013-2017 four-year strategic program. 

According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the parties on Nov. 15, HIMSS will measure the compatibility of intelligence technologies at Turkish hospitals with international standards. 

With the five-year agreement, patient records are supposed to allow immediate access to information anywhere, facilitate the matching of the correct patient with the correct medicine, increase in the time allocated for each patient in healthcare services while decreasing the number of medical errors, the disclosed statement read. 

The HIMSS has a seven-stage system for creating a digital hospital environment. In Turkey, Ankara’s Gazi Mustafa Kemal Public Hospital piloted the use of the system and has “HIMSS Analytics EMRAM Stage 6” accreditation.