Catalan Health Service
Overview
The Catalan Health Service (Servei Català de la Salut) is the public organization under the Ministry of Health of regional government of Catalonia; which is responsible for guaranteeing public, comprehensive and quality health care coverage for 7.7 m of residents in Catalonia.
The public health care system of Catalonia was founded in 1990 under the principle of universality; so all individuals and communities are able to receive the health services.
The public health system of Catalonia has a budget of €20,000M from general taxation and government funds and contributions and it contracts more than 160 health care providers for managing health services around 610 care facilities.
The Catalan Information System Master Plan: Building a digital health strategy for Catalonia
The 2018-2022 Information Systems Master Plan of the Integrated Public Use Healthcare System of Catalonia (SISCAT) establishes the commitment of building a new health information system shared by all health providers that contributes to the transformation of the health service provision model in Catalonia.
Our society faces a series of health and social challenges, such as chronic care, dependence, prevention of risk factors, the emergence of new diseases, and the necessary promotion of health, which require innovative technology solutions and a boost to data-driven analytical processes.
Catalonia’s new EHR is the backbone of a new information systems model that is just starting to emerge during the so-called second phase of the digital transformation for the Catalan health sector. In Catalonia in 2007 a significant process of change began as a result of major successful projects such as the interconnection of EHRs across the public network of providers, e-prescription, the central system of digital medical imaging or the personal digital health platform, placing us among the leading countries in the adoption of digital health solutions.
The current situation calls for further progress of these innovations; the development of Catalonia’s EHR, based on the standard openEHR, that is now starting emerges as a longitudinal, transactional and shared repository to collect and care for people’s health over their lifetime, which will systematically replace private information systems among health care providers.
For further information, see The Catalan Information System Master Plan