Many nursing staff are all too familiar with this problem from their day-to-day work: patient information is missing, and the attending physician cannot be reached. Such situations will soon be a thing of the past, as the telematics infrastructure (TI) will make many things easier in everyday nursing care.
From next year, the TI connection will be mandatory for all care facilities. A prerequisite for the integration of the facility into the telematics infrastructure is the application for the eHPC and the SMC-B. The SMC-B serves to authenticate the institution as a care facility, while the Electronic Health Professional Card (eHPC) identifies all TI access-authorized persons, such as doctors or nurses, and contains an electronic signature.
A quick guide for registration and application, as well as a detailed user manual that guides you through the application process, can be found on the application portal of the GKV-Spitzenverband.
The TI provides access to important digital applications – first and foremost the electronic patient record (EPR), in which treatment details, findings and doctors’ letters are bundled and made available to nursing staff.
The electronic medication plan (EMP) contains all information on medicines, intolerances and allergies. The emergency data provides nurses and caregivers with all the information they need to act quickly. Moreover, The electronic prescription will considerably simplify the process of obtaining medications. And the KIM (Communication in Medicine) service will allow medical documents to be exchanged securely and easily with other service providers.
The exchange of information with GP practices, physiotherapists, pharmacies and rehabilitation facilities is much faster and simpler. But most importantly, this freed-up time will improve the care given to patients. So it is already worthwhile to connect to the TI with the electronic health professional card (EHPC) and the practice ID card (SMC-B). You can order both cards from D-Trust GmbH, a company of the Bundesdruckerei Group – as can the majority of doctors and pharmacists who are already connected to the TI.
Nursing staff can connect to the TI with their EHPC and gain access to digital applications. This not only improves the flow of information, but also the quality of care.
As soon as nursing staff have authenticated themselves using their EHPC, they can access important information in the EPR and exchange documents with other specialist departments via the KIM communication module. Nursing staff can easily save treatment history documentation or important notes in the EPR themselves.
When a patient is being discharged or transferred for further medical, rehabilitative, or nursing care, the use of TI applications also serves to benefit discharge management. For example, documentation created during the course of treatment or other important information can be transferred to the EPR as part of discharge management. Care providers and facilities providing further care will thus have direct access to the necessary data and information.
The electronic patient record (EPR) is the centerpiece of the telematics infrastructure. Insured persons can get it in the form of a free app upon request from their health insurance provider. In future, nursing staff will be able to call up all relevant medical information in the EPR. This includes findings and doctor’s letters. It is also possible for you to store your own documentation and documents. The plan for the future is to add the electronic medication plan (EMP) to the record as well. Access to the EPR requires the patient’s approval. Information is never lost even when a patient switches to a different health insurance provider. Starting at the end of 2024, “EPR for all” will be introduced and automatically made available to all insured persons.
The electronic medication plan contains information on the medications used to treat patients and is stored on the health card. All authorised service providers in the telematics infrastructure can view the medication plan quickly at any time. The complete documentation of prescribed medication serves the purpose of drug therapy safety, more specifically in terms of contraindications and medication errors. In future, the EMP is to become part of the electronic patient record (EPR).
Emergency data is information about the patient that may be helpful for treatment in an emergency situation. For example, this may be due to previous illnesses, intolerances, operations or allergies. The emergency data also includes diagnoses, medications and contact details for doctors or relatives who need to be informed in an emergency. Patients can store personal documents such as their organ donor card, healthcare proxy or living will. The patient alone decides whether to create an emergency data record and which information to include.
KIM enables secure and direct communication between all participating professional groups in the telematics infrastructure. KIM users can send and exchange doctors’ letters, treatment and cost plans, findings, X-ray images, laboratory data, invoices and sick notes by e-mail in a secure environment.
TIM supplements KIM by providing secure, mobile, ad-hoc communication. Regardless whether queries about prescribed medication, information on laboratory results or call-back requests are involved, TIM will soon enable all healthcare professions throughout Germany to communicate with each other in real time via text message. This will save valuable time on all sides and it will be particularly helpful in emergency situations, when every second counts.
Accessing the telematics infrastructure and thus the electronic patient record requires two cards, an electronic health card terminal and a connector. With the electronic health professional card (EHPC), nursing staff personally identify themselves in the TI as a member of their professional group. The most important component of the EHPC is a qualified electronic signature (QES). It replaces the handwritten signature in the telematics infrastructure. Each one of the various applications in the TI must be signed with the QES when completed. The purpose of the second card, SMC-B, is to identify the care facility. The electronic health professions register (EHPR) is responsible for issuing both ID cards. The cards can be ordered from D-Trust once the EHPR has been approved.
To ensure that everyone who is part of the healthcare system can connect to the TI, most of the costs involved are refinanced by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds. This includes both the costs for the technical equipment (card reader and connector) and the ongoing operating costs for two eHPC and the SMC-B.
Midwives receive their electronic health professional card from the newly created electronic health professional register (EHPR). The task of the EHPR is to verify the applicant’s professional licence. This also requires reliable identification of the applicant. Once your professional licence has been confirmed, you will receive a process number from the EHPR for the order.
The EHPC is ordered from D-Trust using its own eHealth portal. After entering the transaction number, you will receive a pre-filled application. All you have to do is complete the application, print it out and send it in. You must also provide valid identification, for example using the PostIdent procedure. Once valid identification and the signed application documents have been submitted, the EHPC can be produced and then, once approved, sent out by the EHPR.
