Press Release

National Patient Summary Receives Formal Acceptance

Sjukvårdsrådgivningen SVR AB:  7 September 2009

Right on schedule, the first version of the National Patient Summary service (known as the NPÖ) was formally accepted on 31 August. This represented the end of a three-month trial period in Örebro which demonstrated that the system, the support service and the administrative organisation are all fully functional. As a result, the NPÖ can be developed further and introduced into other healthcare organisations. Örebro county council and local authority will continue to use the service and will take the next step of extending its use within their organisations.
 
"Formal acceptance is an important milestone in our efforts to provide benefits for healthcare organisations. The National Patient Summary is a very important part of the process of implementing the national IT strategy for health and medical care in Sweden," said Ellen Hyttsten, managing director of Sjukvårdsrådgivningen SVR AB (the Swedish healthcare advisory organisation).
 
She explained that close cooperation between all the parties is what has made it possible to meet the tight deadline.
"We succeeded because of the all-out effort and significant commitment made by everyone involved, not least the supplier Tieto. Now the results are clear. In concrete terms, the formal acceptance means that Östergötland can join the NPÖ during the autumn, which is the next step in the process of the NPÖ being extended to all healthcare providers."
 
Christer Bergh, project manager at the supplier Tieto Healthcare Sverige, agrees that good communication has been an important success factor:
 
"There has been close monitoring and very good collaboration between the supplier and the client, together with all the project groups, testers and users. An open dialogue has allowed us to work together to solve the problems which faced us," he said.

"This is one of the most exciting projects we have worked on. We feel that we have played a pioneering role, because this is the first time that a national service of this kind has been set up anywhere in the world."
 
 
For further information, contact:

Lena Lindqvist
Communication manager for the NPÖ and BIF programme
Telephone: +46 704 97 90 28, e-mail lena.lindqvist@skl.se
 
For more information about the National Patient Summary, visit:
www.npö.nu
www.bifprojektet.se

 
The National Patient Summary is a vital part of the programme to implement the national IT strategy for the healthcare and welfare sector in Sweden. The National Patient Summary gives authorised care staff access to critical patient information, irrespective of the organisation they belong to, the time and the place. With an overall picture of the patient, care providers have the information they need to provide more effective diagnoses, treatment and follow-up. This will make services more efficient and reduce the risk of patients being given the wrong treatment or having unnecessary samples taken. In the long term, patients will also have a greater influence over their own care. The project is being implemented by Sjukvårdsrådgivningen SVR AB (the Swedish healthcare advisory organisation) on behalf of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.