The clinical informatization in Portugal: an approach to the National Health Service certification

Abstract

In the context of the Technological Revolution, people are forced to change their way of being in order to survive in an increasingly competitive and efficient society. The healthcare sector is no exception. The clinical informatization brought a lot of changes in procedures and ways to act and manage in order to follow the advent of the Information Age. However, this clinical informatization should be evaluated and measured in order to report the actual stage of dematerialization and identify possible improvements. The maturity models, such as the EMRAM model, are good candidates to reach these goals. On behalf of the Health Ministry, the Portuguese Shared Services of the Ministry of Health wanted to implement the model in the National Health Service to certify, at a clinical level, the institutions, and, at the same time, contribute with a new methodology to ensure the certification of administrative services of health institutions.