Implementing National Electronic Health Records in Nursing Homes in Tyrol: A Nursing Management Perspective.

Background: Health information technologies as electronic health records (EHR) have the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of health care. Implementing national EHR in nursing homes in Tyrol is a required task within the next years.

Objectives: To explore and analyze the current situation of information exchange in nursing homes in Tyrol as well as expected potentials and challenges of an ELGA implementation from a nursing management perspective.

From a paper-based transmission of discharge summaries to electronic communication in health care regions.

Objectives: In Austria, the general practitioner (GP) is the first point of contact for persons with health problems. Depending on the severity of the person's medical condition, a GP may refer her or him to a secondary care hospital consultant, who reports findings back to the GP in form of a paper-based discharge letter. Researchers report that paper-based communication of medical documents between different health care providers is insufficient in quality, error prone and too slow in many cases.

Approaches towards a regional, shared electronic patient record for health care facilities of different health care organizations--IT-strategy and first results.

Today, information processing in healthcare facilities is usually primarily directed towards the information needs of the respective institution. This stands in apparent contradiction to the fact that patients may not be solely treated in one general practice or hospital. More information processing towards patient-centered, shared care would better support high quality as well as efficient health care.