eHealth applications in portuguese hospitals: A continuous benchmarking with european hospitals

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe and compare the use of eHealth applications in selected European Union (EU) countries. Using data available from the European Hospital Survey (2012/2013), the study reported in this paper analyses the adoption of five of the most commonly used Health Applications in European Hospitals, namely Electronic Patient Records (EPR), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), ePrescribing, Integrated system for eReferral and Tele-monitoring. The analysis of the adoption of these applications by the Hospitals allows us to understand the position of Portugal in relation to the European average. It has been found that the Portuguese Hospitals are well positioned with regard to the adoption of these applications and in spite of this, remains a permanent concern to raise the levels of adoption of these applications through new projects in progress.