Patient Summaries improve the continuity of care by making patients’ key health data easily accessible, regardless of which EU country they previously received treatment in. This reduces the need for duplicate examinations and saves time and resources.
When healthcare professionals have access to up-to-date information on things like a patient’s diagnoses and medicines, they are in a better position to make informed decisions on patient care. This can minimise the risk of errors, increase patient safety and improve the patient’s treatment experience.
Patient Summaries make the work of healthcare professionals easier by providing a centralised summary and clear overview of a patient’s data. The data are automatically translated and are mostly displayed in the Summary in Finnish.
What is included in a Patient Summary?
A Patient Summary shows a centralised compilation of clinical data previously recorded about the patient by the healthcare services of another country. A Patient Summary contains the following information about the patient’s health and medical history:
- diagnoses
- medication information
- risk information, such as allergies, medicine allergies and implanted devices
- procedures performed.
The Patient Summary will be transferred in two formats, as a PDF file and an English-language HL7 CDA document, the structured content of which can be translated into the healthcare professional’s own language.
How to deploy Patient Summaries
The Patient Summary function can be deployed in a patient information system or in a separate application. You will be able to deploy the function once your organisation has joined as a user of the Patient Data Repository.
How to start using the Patient Summary function:
Contact your information system provider to ensure that the function can be deployed in your patient information system or application. The systems in which the Patient Summary has been joint-tested can be found at Situation of the Patient Data Repository.
Read the description and terms of use of the Patient Summary (pdf, in Finnish). Send the signed Service Description Approval Form (pdf, in Finnish)to Kela by post.
For the technical enabling of the Patient Summary, send the access point information to Kela by submitting the form Notification of changes in Technical Data (pdf, in Finnish).
Agree on the deployment of the function and the tasks required for deployment with your system provider. You can also contact Kela by email at kanta@kanta.fi.
After deployment, make sure that the patient information system or application is able to generate Summaries. Read the instructions for Verifying technical functionality in the production environment.
Train your staff to utilise the Summaries and to inform patients on the topic.
