Advantages and problems at the introduction of the national electronic health information system in primary care in Bulgaria in 2022

Nevena Ivanova

Keywords: national electronic health information system, primary care, general practitioners

Aim:

to study the opinion of general practitioners (GPs) about the introduction of the national electronic health information system in primary care in Bulgaria in 2022

Method:

a pilot study in 50 general practitioners was conducted in the Plovdiv region using a developed questionnaire

Results:

77% (39) of the participants were women, 23% (11) were men, divided into 3 age groups - 25-45 years 5 (10%), 45-65 years 42 (84%), over 65 3 (6%). 80% of practices were located in the city, 20% in villages. 98% of primary care practices were individual and only 2% were group. 100% of doctors approve of the introduction of the national electronic health information system, which creates an electronic patient file and reduces the costs of storing information. 50% (25) consider that the introduction does not achieve increased efficiency of the health system, and 40% (20) that there is no improvement in health services. The problems indicated by GPs are lack of prior information about the system in 92% (46), lack of prior training to work with the system in 98% (49), server overload and downtime in 90% (45), current updates of the system which makes work difficult for 83% of participants (42), generation of electronic referral for consultation with a specialist with the wrong code in 74% (37), issuing an electronic prescription that cannot be used in pharmacy, due to incompatible software 68% (34).

Conclusions:

in Bulgaria, individual practices for primary health care dominate. The introduction of an electronic information system in primary care is a contemporary step in the modernization of health care. Still in Bulgaria, doctors experience difficulties in its use, which is largely related to technical and sofware problems.

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