A planned electronic patient record in Switzerland would aid the general population and especially the chronically ill. This is the most important message of a recently finished regulatory impact analysis delivered to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 29 May. The Federal Council of Switzerland will now debate whether the law on the electronic patient record should also contain the initial subsidies as proposed in the draft law. The regulatory impact analysis conducted by empirica clearly underlines the need for state funding:
“The socio-economic impact for the society as a whole is clearly positive in the long term. But a prolonged period of investments and without immediate returns by healthcare providers needs to be overcome until the benefits of such a system do arrive. Federal and cantonal subsidies would help to lower this dip.” says Reinhard Hammerschmidt, the consultant responsible for the assessment.

The results of the analysis have been published by the Federal Office of Public Health www.bag.admin.ch. Further information on the preceding study phases can also be obtained from their website.