The aim is to simplify and to lighten the workload of the staff of the healthcare centres; likewise, the booking of healthcare appointments becomes easier and more accessible for patients, with the availability of the service 24 hours, 7 days a week.
At first, the online booking service will be operational for appointments with the general practitioners (GPs), paediatricians and nurses of the 91 healthcare centres of the region's urban and semi-urban areas. Over 1.4 million patients will benefit.
The second phase of the initiative will mark its extension to rural healthcare centres of suburban areas by the summer of 2010, and then to all local centres and clinics - although the latter barely face the problem of an excessive number of requests for appointments.
On the occasion of the official presentation of the service, regional Minister for Health Francisco Javier Álvarez Guisasola acknowledged that this is a tool "of the future"; it is indeed estimated that so far 10 % of the potential users have made actual use of it.
In order to arrange their appointment online, people simply need to visit the health portal of the region (www.salud.jcyl.es) and access the sub-portal for citizens. Under the 'online services' section, they will find all the information pertaining to online booking and the link to make their appointment request.
Once they have reached the relevant page, the patients must type in the personal identification code (Código de Identificación Personal - CIP, in Spanish) of their health card -or use their national eID card- as well as their family name and check a series of random numbers "which will prevent hackers from causing system breakdowns and offer additional security" said the General Director of Health Development, Jesús García-Cruces. After completing these steps, they can choose an appointment with a family doctor, a pediatrician or a nurse for the day and time they wish; in case of unavailability, they will be able to book for the most approaching day.
At first, it will be possible to book online with the three aforementioned types of practitioners only. Other primary healthcare specialists are planned to be added (midwives, physiotherapists, etc). Adding the 50 existing healthcare specialties will be "much more complex".
The system furthermore provides a list of the available consultation times. In future, the remaining specialties will be added. It is worth adding that the tool allows the cancellation of appointments upon request and the printing of the certificate of consultation.
In case the patients opt for the SMS channel, they will need to send a message to the number 7072 with the text "citamed" followed by a space, their personal identification code and the requested consultation date. In this case choosing the hour of the consultation is not possible, but the users can always cancel their request. The cost of the service is that of a normal text message.
Further information:
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 06.05.2010
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