Workers at pharmacies voice concerns over malfunctions in the electronic prescription system
In recent weeks, Germany's e-prescription system has encountered significant downtime, causing operational challenges for pharmacies and healthcare providers. The system, which became mandatory in January 2024, is managed by Gematik, the responsible society for the e-prescription system.
Thomas Preis, head of the Federal Association, has criticised the e-prescription system, stating that it is outpacing Deutsche Bahn in terms of unreliability. He emphasised that malfunctioning e-prescriptions can have serious consequences for people's health.
The root cause of the system's instability is primarily due to technical issues within the Telematics Infrastructure, including outages related to gateways managed by service providers like RISE and Arvato. These disruptions have led to prolonged periods of unreliability, affecting electronic prescriptions, electronic patient records, and data management services.
Pharmacists have reported multiple days of significant downtime, severely impacting patient care. The system's instability stems from both technical failures in infrastructure components and the complexity of ensuring secure, seamless data transmission across the healthcare network.
To improve reliability, Gematik is actively working to resolve technical issues and restore stable functionality. They have acknowledged that some components and services required for using e-prescriptions have been affected. Gematik's top priority is ensuring stable and secure operation, and they are continuously working to improve the reliability and stability of the e-prescription system.
Healthcare stakeholders, including the German pharmacists’ association, are urging Gematik to enhance system stability urgently. They are requesting regulatory allowances that would give pharmacies more flexibility to provide medications during system downtimes without bureaucratic hurdles. Some groups, including the Free Pharmacists' Association, are even considering legal measures against Gematik for operational losses due to outages.
The German Foundation for Patient Protection has demanded an early warning system for e-prescription disruptions. Board member Eugen Brysch has called for a "daily e-prescription radar" to inform doctors of system functionality. Patients have the option to receive the prescription as a paper printout if they prefer.
Despite the current setbacks, the transition to e-prescriptions remains pivotal for future healthcare digitization. The goal of e-prescriptions is to provide more comfort and reduce trips to the doctor's office. However, it's clear that stronger infrastructure and contingency provisions are needed to ensure the system's reliability.
The e-prescription system in Berlin has experienced five days of complete outages or significant disruptions in the past two weeks. Each instance of disruption affects tens of thousands of patients. Preis emphasised that there's no alternative to digitizing healthcare, but the current unreliability of the e-prescription system is unacceptable.
In conclusion, the failures in Germany’s Telematics Infrastructure systems supporting e-prescriptions, patient records, and related services have caused frequent partial and total outages, disrupting access to prescriptions for tens of thousands of patients. Measures to improve reliability include technical fixes by Gematik, calls for more operational flexibility, and potential legal accountability for service failures. The transition to e-prescriptions remains crucial for future healthcare digitization, but stronger infrastructure and contingency provisions are needed to ensure the system's reliability.
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- The e-prescription system, integral to health-and-wellness and technology advancement, is facing challenges due to frequent technical issues, causing medical-conditions management difficulties for patients.
- As the e-prescription system's instability stems from technical failures and the complexity of secure data transmission, there's a pressing need to strengthen the system's infrastructure and implement contingency provisions, ensuring its reliability in science and healthcare practices.
