Electronic Prescription System Faces Criticism from Pharmacy Staff
The digital healthcare transition in Germany is currently being tested by the e-prescription system, which has been plagued with frequent outages and functional disruptions. Gematik, the federal digital agency responsible for the system, is working diligently to address these issues and improve system stability.
Recent times have seen components and services required for the use of e-prescriptions affected by disruptions, with the system frequently failing or running unstable. Gematik attributes many outages to problems with external service providers and telematics infrastructure components like gateways managed by third parties.
To tackle these challenges, Gematik has been actively addressing the issues, promptly reporting on outages and communicating about the technical causes once identified. They have also worked on resolving issues swiftly after detection to restore service continuity, as seen in rapid recovery from specific outages.
The agency has faced calls from professional associations, such as the German Pharmacists’ Association and the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA), urging urgent improvements in reliability. Gematik responds by emphasizing ongoing efforts and the complexity posed by reliance on multiple external service providers.
In addition, Gematik is engaged in efforts to strengthen the telematics infrastructure (TI), which underpins services including e-prescriptions, electronic patient records (ePA), and secure communication (KIM). Instability in these areas affects the entire digital health ecosystem.
Criticism about lack of flexibility during outages by pharmacies requesting more procedural allowances to supply medicines quickly in case of system downtime has also been addressed.
Each time of outage or disruption affects tens of thousands of patients, highlighting the criticality of the digital healthcare transition in Germany. The e-prescription system, which will be mandatory as of January 2024, aims to increase convenience and reduce visits to the doctor's office. However, the current unreliability of the system can have significant consequences for people's health.
Eugen Brysch, a board member of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, has demanded a "daily e-prescription radar" to inform doctors directly about the system's functionality. The foundation has also called for an early warning system for disruptions in the e-prescription system.
Those who wish can still receive the prescription as a paper printout. The goal of the e-prescription system is to provide more comfort and reduce trips to the doctor's office. Manual signatures and trips will be eliminated with the e-prescription system, allowing follow-up prescriptions to be issued without another patient visit.
Despite the challenges, the stable and secure operation of the e-prescription system remains Gematik's top priority. The digitization of the healthcare system is inevitable, but the current unreliability of the e-prescription system is unacceptable, according to Thomas Preis, the head of the Federal Association of Pharmacists.
[1] Gematik [2] TI-Ausbaustufe 4 [3] Gematik-Update [4] Gematik-Update 10-2021
The digital health and wellness landscape in Germany, especially the e-prescription system, is heavily dependent on the telematics infrastructure (TI) maintained by Gematik. Gematik has been implementing updates, such as TI-Ausbaustufe 4 and Gematik-Update 10-2021, to enhance system stability and reliability in the face of medical-conditions and technology-related challenges. However, the current unreliability can have significant consequences for people's health and science, emphasizing the need for immediate improvements.
