According to Federal Health Minister Lauterbach, the electronic patient file should become mandatory by the end of 2024 – use is currently still voluntary. In order to convince more policyholders of the digital option, it should become more accessible. Lauterbach still wants to present details on this.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach finally wants to achieve a breakthrough in electronic patient records next year. “At the end of next year, the electronic patient file will be binding for everyone,” he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “Anyone who does not expressly object is automatically included.” The aim is “that our health system finally arrives in the 21st century”.
The electronic patient file is considered a digital flagship project in the German healthcare system. It was decided in principle more than 20 years ago. Since the beginning of 2021, insured persons have been able to use it on a voluntary basis in a first expansion stage, namely via a smartphone app, in which, for example, scanned medical reports can be saved and released for viewing in other practices.
“The German problem with digitization is that we make many things too complicated,” said Lauterbach. “I want to avoid that.” Access to the electronic patient file must be “totally unbureaucratic”. According to Lauterbach, the electronic prescription should also become binding at the same time as the file. According to the newspaper report, he wants to present details of his projects in the field of digitization at the cabinet retreat planned for Sunday and Monday at Schloss Meseberg.
The minister does not expect much resistance from the medical profession against the electronic patient file: “There are only very few doctors who have a problem with it,” he said. “There will always be a few vocal critics.”
