Swiss eHealth Barometer: Swiss reluctant to digitize healthcare

The digital networking of Swiss healthcare professionals is stalling and the Swiss are reticent due to global data protection scandals. An electronic patient dossier (EPD) still wants to open a majority of the respondents. The upcoming legal obligation of clinics (2020) and nursing homes (2022) to offer electronic patient files paves the way for digitalization in the healthcare system.

2,462 health professionals from seven fields of activity and 1,207 Swiss residents were surveyed. This has been part of the Swiss eHealth Forum since 2009 Swiss eHealth barometer created. With the survey of doctors, pharmacies, retirement and nursing homes, nonprofit Spitex organizations, IT specialists, the authorities and voters, the eHealth Barometer provides a comprehensive picture of all relevant actors in Switzerland.

Internal and external digital networking has been in place since 2018. The introduction ofElectronic patient records can counteract this development. From mid-April 2020, hospitals will have to offer the electronic patient file gradually. Not all clinics are smart health connected to a (core) community (83%), despite the fact that electronic patient files will soon be introduced. However, the hospitals that have the most common eHealth strategy of all healthcare institutions (81%) can are seen as an important pioneer of digital networking for other health care facilities.

Fewer and fewer Swiss want to use electronic patient files

The public's reluctance to digitalize healthcare is growing. The willingness to store health data electronically has decreased in a year-on-year comparison (57% tend to agree to very much; -9 percentage points compared to 2019). At the same time, the proportion of those who are not (yet) sure whether they agree to it has increased. For the first time since the beginning of the survey in 2013, only a minority agreed to the exchange of their health data among the treatment providers (47%). Nevertheless, a relative majority of the population still supports the introduction of the electronic patient file and can also imagine using it themselves (36%). First and foremost, the respondents want to open a patient file with their general practitioners. Other providers, especially pharmacists, would come but also in question. Against the background of the introduction of the electronic patient record, it seems important that the population is given detailed information about its design, goals and benefits.

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