Electronic Health Information System has not yet given the expected benefit

The National Audit Office of Lithuania evaluated management of information systems in the Ministry of Health and development of the National Electronic Health Information System. This system will integrate all the national medical institutions. It would allow to improve the quality of health care services and medical services, as well as would facilitate the work of doctors. It was detected during the audit that over LTL 17 million was used for development of the system and acquisition of the equipment and consulting services. In the opinion of public auditors the Ministry has not exhausted all the possibilities to properly and efficiently use funds for the development of information system. The Auditor General Ms Rasa Budbergytė pointed out that material violations of legal acts were detected during the audit, therefore heads of institutions will be committed to bring to service or disciplinary responsibility the responsible persons.

While developing the National Electronic Health Information System the Ministry of Health did not have the approved strategic electronic health documents, therefore it was not clear as to what purposes were pursued and how the achieved results should be assessed. Furthermore, the Ministry did not properly supervise the development of the system, therefore the majority of the envisaged tasks were not implemented in time, and the adopted system did not perform some essential functions. For example, it did not allow to receive data from the State registers, or to check whether a patient had an insurance. While developing the system possibilities of integration with other information systems were not assessed; the planned two-way integration was not implemented. A part of the planned but not performed or not fully performed tasks were added in the list of the second project tasks.

The Ministry has not introduced the developed system in any of the envisaged 21 institutions. Currently it operates only in additionally selected clinic of Širvintos. Only 3 per cent of computer equipment acquired for LTL 4.3 million was used for work with the system. The rest of the equipment is used by health care institutions at their own discretion, as system software was not introduced in these institutions.


Full report is available in Lithuanian:
Evaluation of Information Systems General Control in the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania. Audit of Development of Electronic Health Information System