Hospital Mesa del Castillo is a medical facility located in Murcia, which started its activity more than 70 years ago and offers more than 30 medical and surgical specialties.
It is a privately run health center, with an agreement with the Murcian Health Service, which also offers health care with most of the private, labor, sports, and traffic insurance companies.
The importance of electronic signatures in the health sector
There are a multitude of patient signature interactions in the hospital, which require seamless integration with the hospital management system process: GDPR forms, Informed Consent forms, Proofs for Reason of Absences, etc. Processes that are traditionally formalized on paper, with the costs, inefficiencies, and legal conflicts that can arise from the very sensitive information involved.
In this scenario, the electronic signature is a key tool for the improvement of physical document processes, both in the administrative and healthcare areas of the hospital. It reduces the environmental impact and costs, eliminates the risk of paper as a transmitting element, helps to comply with the legal framework (data protection regulations, ...), and optimises internal and external operations.
For the past two years, the hospital has had biometric signature service integrated into its hospital management system process.
Introducing digitisation securely
One of the services with the most interaction between patients, clients, and staff is the hospital's physiotherapy treatments. Patients must sign the "Attendance Record" in the hospital's gymnasium each time they come for a treatment session prescribed by the specialist doctors. These, at the same time, must draw up the corresponding medical report at the end of each patient's treatment.
The large volume of sessions and treatments in this specialty, together with the various participants in the healthcare and administrative process: patients, doctors, private clients, and companies (insurance companies, mutual insurance companies and public health services), made it necessary to find a solution that would improve the administrative process to add greater value to the service already offered by the hospital.
Mesa del Castillo Hospital entrusted its technological partner NUNSYS with the implementation of a solution that met the objectives set: to transform a physical administrative process into a digital one, to provide a legal guarantee of the electronic signature procedure and data processing, and to optimize internal and external operations by reducing costs.
VIDsigner, a solution adapted to the needs of the hospital
The technological solution was based on the implementation of an electronic signature document management software with the following characteristics:
- Integrates the services of a trusted third party for biometric autographic signature on an approved tablet.
- It automatically creates attendance reports with the treatment prescribed for each session together with the patient's signature.
- It adapts to the work process of the users of the Hospital's Healthcare Management System, as it is integrated with the MsWord document generator. Both for the issuance of the attendance record, which is signed electronically on a tablet, and the medical report, which is drawn up by the doctor, attaching the summary of the patient's prescribed treatment and attendance, and is formalized by the electronic signature of the Hospital's qualified stamp.
- Automatically classifies the visit record for integration into the patient's medical record.
Benefits of digital transformation in the healthcare sector
- Legal guarantee of the electronic signature process and data processing.
- Control of the entire document process associated with physiotherapy treatments.
- Elimination of costs, both paper, and administrative costs.
- Real-time generation of the original electronic documents for all those involved: doctor, patient and clients.
- Reducing the risk of contagion by eliminating paper as a transmitting element.
This solution has allowed us not only to improve and automate the entire document process and make it 100% paperless with the consequent savings, but also to add a legal guarantee to the whole process thanks to the biometric signature and the use of electronic certificates, following the guidelines set by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Ignacio Pérez Cuadrado, IT Manager
