Patients will breathe a sigh of relief. The system will prevent them from being sent from one hospital to another.

• The Sejm is nearing completion of work on the act implementing the Service Provider Potential Register (EPS).
• This IT system allows medical facilities to continuously report and monitor, among other things, the number and distribution of available hospital beds, equipment, and medical personnel.
• - Effective reporting of this data is crucial, especially in crisis situations, including those related to defense - emphasizes the Ministry of Health.

On Wednesday, November 5, the Sejm Health Committee will consider a minor amendment introduced by the Senate to the amended Healthcare Information System Act and the Population Protection and Civil Defense Act. This amendment will introduce the Healthcare Provider Potential Register (EPS) .

It is an IT system that allows medical facilities to continuously report and monitor – on a voivodeship and national scale – the number and distribution of available hospital beds, equipment and medical personnel, among other things.

The implementation of such a system is intended, among other things, to prevent the outrageous cases of patients being sent from one clinic to another in search of a suitable place of treatment.

Everything indicates that after the Senate amendment is considered during the next session of the Sejm (November 5-7), the act implementing the EPS system will be signed by the president.

Currently, the healthcare system lacks solutions that would allow for monitoring – both at the provincial and central levels – data on the current state of hospital resources.

This is how the Ministry of Health justified the need to introduce the EPS system during the drafting of the bill. According to its provisions, hospitals will submit data to the central system, including:

• hospital beds;
• medical workers (medical worker ID, data on the place of practice of the medical profession);
• medical devices;
• personal protective equipment
• stocks of medical gases;
• number of available blood units by blood type;
• number of available units of blood components by name;
• name of the blood donation and blood treatment center or blood bank storing blood and its components.

"Effective reporting of this data is crucial, especially in crisis situations, including those related to defense . To meet the country's defense needs, the Healthcare Provider Potential Records (EPS) system will be a tool used by the Ministry of National Defense," the Ministry of Health emphasizes.

He points out that the currently functioning medical information systems also lack data :

• on the temporary exclusion of beds from use due to failure or poor technical condition;
• about the unavailability of patient rooms - e.g. due to an infectious disease and the need for isolation, random events (e.g. fire, renovation, flooding), as well as due to temporary limitations in service capacity (staff absence, etc.).

The Ministry of Health indicates that, among others, hospitals and State Emergency Medical Services (PRM) units report the need for access to full and up-to-date information from the local area, e.g. a district or voivodeship , about the possibility of performing a necessary life-saving procedure at another medical facility, in order to be able to effectively direct an ambulance with a patient in a state of sudden threat to life or health to a place where the procedure can be performed at a given moment.

There are situations where information about a given entity's inability to accept a patient is not effectively communicated , for example, to emergency medical services. Information about actual bed availability is usually collected manually and twice daily, which translates into very low information value.

- argues the Ministry of Health.

He adds that "at the local crisis management level, there is also no effective monitoring of medical personnel resources and the availability of the health care system in terms of security in the event of a crisis."

In the justification for the act, the Ministry notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the low quality of reporting data held by medical facilities , "concerning resources directly related to the ability to provide services necessary for the Minister of Health to make quick decisions and respond based on current data in a crisis situation."

Much of the data was transferred by hospitals and clinics via phone or email . However, in the case of IT systems, data was entered manually, and in some areas, several times a day due to the need to update the reported data.

- indicates the Ministry of Health.

- This resulted in additional tasks for service providers' staff, as well as the need to employ new employees or send soldiers from the Territorial Defense Forces to carry out these tasks - the Ministry of Health points out.

The act implementing an IT system for monitoring hospital beds, equipment and medical personnel is to enter into force on 1 January 2027.