Retesan | Strategy

One strategy, three phases

After an initial study phase a strategy was selected which was conceived around the idea of e-health and organised in three phases, thought out to start and suitably accompany a process of reform towards a modern health system, which can reap the maximum benefit from information and communication technologies (ICT). A system based on information sharing, on collaboration among the players and on the improvement of the quality of services offered.

The characteristics of these three phases are the progressive adaptation of the nature of the planned interventions and the resulting transformation of the role of the State; from the role of catalyst in the first phase to the role of partner, guarantor of the collective interest, in the following phases. In the same way the individual projects evolve in their design; if at the beginning the creation of the cultural premises – i.e. destined to prepare the population target of the change – represented the main objective, afterwards it has been the functional aspect of the projects which represents the real added value. It is all part of a continuous, progressive process with evolutionary objectives. Finally this course must suitably consider the ethical and political context of the area in which it is developing.

Phase 1

The first phase follows the strategic objective of making patients, health care workers and politicians aware of the possible solutions of e-health which could cover the known requirements of the health system.

Awareness is necessary in order to reduce the psychological and cultural obstacles which are barriers to the introduction of new instruments and new work methods. This phase is an indispensable condition if the opportunities offered by e-health are to be adopted.
This phase centres around the “health card” project in the Lugano area, where health cards for patients and professionals were distributed as new e-health instruments which would be able to encourage the “cultural” acceptance of electronic health and interprofessional collaboration, at the same time suggesting strategies and ideas for the introduction of other services. On 1.7.2006 the final stage of this first phase, called phase 1b, started; its aim is to prepare for phase 2.

Phase 2

With the second phase the Rete sanitaria initiative enters more into a process dynamics intended to satisfy the greater needs for functionality expressed by the players; these needs came to a head for the players during phase 1, dedicated to discovering the potential of e-health services.

The “health card” instrument was thought to move towards a progressive integration with the “Insurance Card”, which is being promoted by the Confederation by means of the legislative modification of the Federal Health Insurance Act (art. 42a). Its generalised introduction started only on 2010 and then the goal could not be realized. Presently the process of putting health care workers into a communication and information network, which was explored at the end of the first phase (1b), is in the preparation phase. The objective pursued in this phase consists in achieving standards in procedure, technology and content, as well as in preparing the regulation premises in order to realise the third phase.

Phase 3

The main feature of the third and last phase is the transformation of the role of the State, which will cease being the first catalyst of the reform process, then to become part of partner dynamics where it is equal to its interlocutors – health, technological and social – within the ambit of consolidation of e-health services which will respond to the mission of the “Rete sanitaria” initiative by improving the premises for cooperation and coordination in the system.