The Systematic electronic health record system means major savings for Danish regional authorities

The Danish regional authorities for Jutland and Funen that have selected the Systematic electronic health record system for use in the hospitals they administer can look forward to significant savings in both purchasing and operating the system, writes Politiken, one of the leading Danish national daily newspapers.

When Region Nordjylland (North Denmark Region) selected Systematic as the supplier of its new electronic health record system just before the 2019 summer holidays, it became the third of Denmark’s five regional authorities to introduce the same solution – and this results in savings in procurement as well as operations.

Klaus Larsen, IT director in North Denmark Region, calls it “the good old northern Denmark approach: better and cheaper”.

- I know we’ll be getting a cheaper system – we can do the maths on that. But we also get a better system with newer technology, and at the same time we can work with the other regions, whereas before we were each more alone with the chosen supplier. We are very much looking forward to that, he explains to the Politiken newspaper.

When the solution is implemented in about two years’ time, North Denmark Region expects to be able to save DKK 10 million on managing its electronic patient records. This saving corresponds to just under 20 per cent of current expenditure.

Region Syddanmark (Region of Southern Denmark) also reckons that its investment in the Systematic health record system will result in lower operating costs. However, an exact amount for this has not yet been determined.

North Denmark Region has achieved all this by taking up a key option included in the tender that Region of Southern Denmark implemented in 2017, and that Systematic won. This option made it possible to also select the Systematic health record system, but without first having to go through the whole process of formulating, issuing and processing an official tender.
This has resulted in multiple benefits for North Denmark Region. One of them is that the regional authority can implement the switch to the new system before 2022, when the new Danish super-hospital known as Aalborg University Hospital is set to open.

The July 2019 article (in Danish) in the Politiken newspaper is here.