Division for Technology and Informatics Project Development in Healthcare
The division carries out tasks relating to:
- project office,
- planning and monitoring informatisation and digitisation in health care;
- administering contracts for the development and maintenance of the information system;
- procurement of IT support (with the participation of the Office for Control, Quality and Investments in Healthcare of the Republic of Slovenia);
- preparing the substantive basis for the drafting of regulations in the field of the division's work;
- providing the legal basis for the computerisation of processes and agreements with the Information Commissioner and other competent institutions;
- preparation of projects.
The digital transformation of healthcare is a complex and long-term process that involves not only the selection of technology, applications and solutions, but also a holistic approach to implementing change, ensuring the appropriate knowledge and competences of the multidisciplinary teams involved in implementing the solutions and systematically ensuring the successful implementation of the digital transformation.
The digital transformation of Hhealthcare follows the objectives below:
- financial sustainability of the system - digitisation and unification of processes requires fewer staff;
- resource efficiency - faster transfer and reduction of multiple patient data entries;
- relieving staff - speech recognition tool, unified administrative data model, paperless business;
- new methods of care - telehealth, telemedicine monitoring;
- improving the quality and safety of treatment - information transfer, fewer administrative errors, possibility of monitoring treatment quality indicators;
- transparency regarding waiting times - upgrade of the e-procurement system to provide a single source of quality data on waiting times;
- changes to payment models for services - introduction of payment models for telehealth services;
- accessibility of health care - use of telehealth to communicate with healthcare professionals, accessibility of telehealth to all patients, patients have electronic access to any health care professional involved in their treatment in a safe and efficient way, and they can electronically access all services that are clinically possible without the patient being physically present;
- changes in the organisation of health care delivery - designation of telehealth providers, organisational changes made possible by the use of electronic channels and facilitated collaboration between healthcare professionals, etc.
Division for Technology and Informatics Project Development in Healthcare leads and coordinates the activities of the Digital Transformation of Health project, foreseen in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is the basis for the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
In the framework of the "eHealth for a Healthier Society" project, with technical assistance from the European Commission, and in cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders from the Slovenian healthcare sector, and incorporating good practices from abroad, the Division for the Development of Technology and IT Projects in Healthcare prepared a Digitisation Strategy for Slovenian Healthcare, which was publicly presented in the beginning of the 2023.