Launch of the Unified Healthcare System Information Portal (GE0043)

Launch of the unified healthcare system information portal. To raise public awareness, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (hereinafter, the MoLHSA) plans to set up an information portal in the framework of the unified healthcare system (E-Health). This commitment aims to raise public awareness, improve transparency of healthcare system and increase accountability and effectiveness in the field. In close cooperation with local civil society and international organizations, the main concept of the information portal will be created. Through this portal, citizens will have an access to reliable and complete information about: the state healthcare programs, medical services, service providers (professional qualification, etc.), medical equipment, blood bank, number of beds, beneficiaries, medical staff and their working places. The portal will enable a citizen to check his/her insurance status and see which services are available for him/her in the frames of the healthcare programs. Current and updated information about healthcare reforms and its monitoring results will also be uploaded on the portal. Creation of the information portal will promote transparency and accountability of the processes undergoing in the healthcare field and increased response to the citizens’ needs. Implementation date: 2016-2017. Issues to be Addressed: As the household survey conducted in 2014 by the financial and technical assistance of the World Bank, World Health Organization and USAID demonstrated, the population is well aware of the Universal Healthcare Program (74%). However, the population does not have enough information about the conditions and services covered by the state healthcare programs. This often results in the violation of their healthcare right and therefore, in unneeded costs. The population has poor access to the most up-to-date information about service providers, medical equipment, blood bank, number of beds, beneficiaries, medical staff and their working places. All these components are important to receive timely and quality medical services.

2. Launch of the unified healthcare system information portal

Commitment Text:

To raise public awareness, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (hereinafter, the MoLHSA) plans to set up an information portal in the framework of the unified healthcare system (E-Health).

This commitment aims to raise public awareness, improve transparency of health care system and increase accountability and effectiveness in the field.

In close cooperation with local civil society and international organizations, the main concept of the information portal will be created. Through this portal, citizens will have an access to reliable and complete information about: the state healthcare programs, medical services, service providers (professional qualification, etc.), medical equipment, blood bank, number of beds, beneficiaries, medical staff and their working places. The portal will enable a citizen to check his/her insurance status and see which services are available for him/her in the frames of the health care programs. Current and updated information about healthcare reforms and its monitoring results will also be uploaded on the portal.

Creation of the information portal will promote transparency and accountability of the processes undergoing in the healthcare field and increased response to the citizens’ needs.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia

Supporting institution(s): LEPL L. Sakvarelidze National Center for Disease Control & Public Health, LEPL Social Service Agency, World Health Organization

Start date: November 2016 End date: December 2017

Commitment Aim:

While the Government of Georgia adopted a Universal Healthcare Program covering all citizens of Georgia in 2013, according to the Ministry of Labour, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia (hereinafter, the MoLHSA), citizens had limited information about their rights and the services available under the plan. The Ministry made a commitment to create a unified electronic portal to provide information regarding hospital bed availability, the background of medical staff, service providers, as well as the patient’s own personal information. The portal would allow citizens to browse information regarding medical facilities, retrieve their medical history and electronic prescriptions, and make appointments with healthcare service providers.

Status

Midterm: Limited

By the midterm, commitment completion was limited. While the MoLHSA held consultation meetings with partners such as the Office of the Personal Data Inspector, USAID’s Good Governance Initiative (GGI), and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), among others, as of August 2017, the portal’s concept paper was not developed. The Ministry did not have a clear vision of which services and modules were already available on the website, and which were to be added on the new portal. As of August 2017, the Ministry was working with a consultant provided by GGI on developing the concept of the portal.

Among the challenges MoLHSA faced was a lack of a coordinated and unified vision of the portal, a lack of funding, and ongoing discussions with the Office of the Personal Data Inspector on possible implications for the portal regarding protection for sensitive patient data. [4]

End of term: Limited

Since the last evaluation, the Ministry developed the portal’s concept paper with the help of GGI. [5] The Ministry started working on the patient’s portal in the late Fall of 2017 and launched the portal in April 2018. While the new portal provides citizens with some information outlined in the commitment text, it does not combine all features envisioned by the commitment such as information on hospital beds, medical facilities, background of the doctors, blood bank, patient’s medical history and more, which indicates it falls short of the result outlined in the commitment. According to one of the partners of the MoLHSA, the implemented activities (i.e., abovementioned platform and modules scattered on different websites of the Ministry) do not correspond to the concept paper. [6]

Did It Open Government?

Access to information: Marginal

The created website requires citizen’s personal ID number for authorization. Registration on the portal is simple, which brings the user straight to the page on relevant insurance and social services available to the citizen under the Universal Healthcare Program. The portal features a FAQ section, as well as a section where citizens can ask questions directly to the site administrator. [7] The portal also redirects the user to the Social Service Agency website, where one can find information about health programs, social programs, and more. The website of the Service Agency existed prior to creation of the new portal. However, the platform simplifies access to existing information by providing relevant links in one space. As such, while several types of data outlined in the commitment text are missing, the portal makes existing information under the Ministry more accessible to the public.

Carried Forward?

The commitment was not carried into the new Action Plan 2018−2019.

[4] Lasha Gogidze and Tamar Gzirishvili, Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Georgia Progress Report 2016-2017 (OGP, 30 Apr. 2018), https://bit.ly/2NIr097.

[5] Ketevan Goginashvili (Head of Staff of the MoLHSA), phone interview with IRM researcher, 28 Aug. 2018.

[6] Mikheil Darchiashvili (Governance Program Manager) and Levan Samadashvili (Chief of Party, Tetra Tech ARD), interview with IRM researcher, 17 Oct. 2018.

[7] An IRM researcher tested the portal (http://citizen.moh.gov.ge/CitizenPortal/Home/Main) on 5 October 2018 at 4:11pm Georgia time. The researcher posed a question but did not get a response as of 7 February 2019.