The Patient Insurance Association’s case management system enables the social workers to handle the patient’s cases digitally. Through the Patient Insurance Association’s net service the patients can follow the processing of their case.
The Patient Insurance Association is an independent association, whose job is to help patients who have been hurt in connection with a treatment or by taking medicine. The patients’ need for access to documents has been thought into the solution, which gives the patients electronic access to their case. The other actors in the case, such as hospitals, doctors, specialists, employers, physiotherapists and others have access to the parts of the statement of claim relevant to them.
The development of the system has been fast in spite of the fact that it is a complicated system that has been implemented. ”The patients benefit from the system, as it is reassuring to have online access to the information on which the settlements are based”, says Ole Graugaard, director/administration manger ad interim with the Patient Insurance Association.
The case management system is developed to support the very complex case histories, which patient insurance cases often undergo. The solution systematises the process for the many different parties who are part of the case. The Patient Insurance Association’s administrative personnel collect all information about the case. The considerable amounts of paper are scanned, so that all documentation is collected in the system. Subsequently, the social workers, who are all lawyers, start the processing of the case, which can last several years depending on the complexity of the case.
As it is a question about intimate data, there are severe demands to the security of the solution. The external parties access the system via digital signature or net-ID, and are screened from viewing other information than the exact information about the single case, to which they shall contribute.
"With this project we get a good indication of how far we can get with the digitalisation", says Ole Graugaard. Apart from the improved service, which the patients experience, the system also contributes to making the work processes more effective. The Patient Insurance Association handles app. 6,000 cases a year, and there is a considerable administrative cost reduction in digitalising the process.
“Since 1992 we have focused on utilising and improving the IT implementation, both in relation to each single case, but also in relation to actual case management and control of the goal attainment. With this project we have a good indication of how far we can get with the digitalisation and of what it means to the internal optimising of work processes. Naturally, the goal is to make the case management time as short as possible”, says Ole Graugaard.
Data in the system acts as documentation for the settlements, but it is also extremely valuable in a statistic perspective. “The system contains registrations about deceases, treatments and complications, and when this information is systematised, the hospitals can use it for injury preventive purposes. The statistic gives an overview of similar cases, how they were treated and with which result. Furthermore, you can see the financial consequences of the mal-treatments from the statistics”, says Ole Graugaard. Every year the Patient Insurance Association pays between 400 and 500 million DKK in compensation to patients.
It is the Patient Insurance Association’s goal that half of the communication to the hospitals shall be digital as per 1 July 2008. As EPJ is developed and implemented in the hospitals, and the patient journals are received electronically, it will mean a significant improvement of the case management times; further administrative cost savings; and it will facilitate search of relevant information. Already now the Patient Insurance Association is ready to accept electronic patient journals and it can offer the hospitals and the regions to use the statistic data in the system as a preventive tool.
”The development of the system has been fast, in spite of the fact that it is a complicated system that has been implemented. The cooperation with Sirius IT is characterised by us knowing each other well, and we have had a common understanding of what we were dealing with, and where we were going. We have worked with Sirius IT for many years prior to this project, and they have a deep knowledge of our business processes and strategy. It gives a dynamic and effective cooperation”, says Ole Graugaard.