The introduction of the IANUS electronic health record (EHR) system has helped the Galician Public Health Service to introduce enormous efficiencies in the delivery of patient care, reducing the number of medical visits and cutting waiting time. The innovative centralised system means that complete patient-related information is available to all medical staff.
- 13 June 2014
IANUS is fully deployed in 14 hospitals and more than 400 primary care centers, providing a solid base to a complete patient-centred model that will include telehealth, telemonitoring and a Web 2.0 model for patients.
IANUS is an electronic health record (EHR) system that is designed to smooth the delivery of patient care services in the Spanish region of Galicia. The new ICT platform provides continuity of treatment, regardless of the hospital or medical centre being attended by those seeking treatment. This helps doctors and nurses to reach better and faster diagnoses, while offering patients more personalised treatments. All this is achieved by integrating the clinical and administrative information formerly stored in many different systems and organising it into one EHR model that is common to all patients.
Continuity of Patient Care
The IANUS system means that all medical staff have instant access to an individual patient’s history of health problems, allergies, earlier treatments and nursing care programmes. Equally, as 100 % of public and private hospitals, health centres and pharmacies are connected via IANUS, a full history of the patient’s prescription history is available. It is also connected to the Spanish National Health Service, to view patients’ medical information recorded in other regions of the country.
Citizen Access
The IANUS system is not a tool designed for the exclusive use by medical personnel. Some 2 700 000 citizens of Galicia can also access basic information about their own medical records via the internet, using their personal national identification number.
These changes are particularly beneficial for people with chronic illnesses. It is estimated that IANUS has reduced visits to the Emergency Rooms (ER) of hospitals by 4 %, cut consultations at the primary care level by 10 % and meant that the number of patients waiting for an appointment has been reduced by 19 %. The introduction of an electronic prescription service has resulted in 2 500 000 fewer visits each year by patients to their General Practitioner (GP).
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “IANUS” (Galician Electronic Medical Record) is EUR 17 700 000 with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) contributing EUR 3 186 000 through the “Regional Research and Innovation” Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programming period.