A contribution to healthcare professionals being able to spend more time on patient-focused work.

The government's perspective report for 2024 indicates that we will need 180,000 new positions in the healthcare sector by 2060. One contribution is to automate tasks that are currently performed manually and which take time away from patient-focused work.

The main message in NOU 2023:4 "Time for Action" is that Norway's health and care services face a significant need for trained healthcare personnel leading up to 2040, and it is essential to ensure that healthcare personnel spend more time on patient-focused work and less time on administrative tasks.

Automated Data Capture

National medical quality registers are health registers that collect structured information about the investigation, treatment, and follow-up of patients within defined disease groups. The aim is to improve the quality of healthcare services by documenting treatment outcomes and identifying variations in practice.

The purpose is to contribute to ensuring that everyone receives better and more equitable healthcare services.

Healthcare personnel currently spend a lot of time on manual data entry for quality registers. The goal is to reduce the time healthcare personnel spend on registration in national medical quality registers by allowing medical information that is structured in electronic patient records, professional systems, or national health registers to be reused in medical quality registers.

We have set a target that by the end of 2026, at least 20 per cent of the national quality registers will receive all or part of the health information without manual registration, says Philip Skau, head of the National Service Environment for Medical Quality Registers at the Centre for Clinical Documentation and Evaluation (SKDE) in Health North RHF.

Another goal is that by the end of 2026, at least three quality registers in each of the four health regions will have a significant proportion of health information with data capture directly from other health registers or electronic patient records.

Challenging Work

SKDE has developed a framework for the work on automated data capture. The framework describes relevant data sources, technical solutions for integration, organisation, and financing. The benefits of this work will be measured as reduced time for manual registration.

Photo: Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen

New Position at SKDE

To make data capture for quality registers more efficient, SKDE has created a new position for a project manager.

This is a challenging role and requires good involvement from a range of stakeholders and coordination across the four health regions and health administration, says Philip Skau.

• We are looking for a person who will work on a wide range of tasks, from technology to documentation, law, and project management. I would say that the position is as varied as it is important, says Eva Stensland.