A central system for monitoring hospital resources will be created

The Parliament passed an act providing for the creation of a central system for monitoring hospital resources, the so-called Record of the Service Provider's Potential. The system is intended to enable real-time checking of the actual status of, among others: hospital beds, medical workers, medicines and blood in a given facility.

The Act on amending the Act on the health care information system and the Act on Civil Protection and Civil Defense prepared by the Ministry of Health provides for the creation of a new central ICT system – the Registry of Service Provider Potential (EPS).

EPS is intended to enable real-time monitoring of the condition of hospital beds, medical workers, key medical devices, personal protective equipment and medical gases, blood and its components.

In the justification to the draft act, it was noted that this would also make it possible to inform about the partial or total inability to provide health care services, including: due to force majeure. The system is intended to enable units of the State Emergency Medical Service to report the need for hospital beds. It is to be automated and obtain data directly from hospital IT systems.

According to the Ministry of Health, the implementation of the act is intended to improve the quality of pre-hospital care, among others: by preventing refusals to admit patients in hospital emergency departments and emergency rooms. Transporting patients between hospitals will also be limited. The adopted solutions will improve the management of health care system resources during crises, e.g. a possible pandemic, natural disasters or military operations.

The system is also intended to help in effective data reporting, which is particularly important in crisis situations, including those related to defense, because EPS will be used, among others, by the Minister of National Defense.

The act also provides for the expiration of the transfer of data on hospitalization of COVID-19 patients, including clinical data and the number of beds intended for patients with this disease, to the Government Center for Security. This scope was added to the Act during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the ICT system module intended for this purpose has not been launched, and the date for the start of data transfer by service providers to the Government Security Center is still being postponed – it was noted in the justification. (PAP)

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