Electronic Data Interchange in medical care: an evaluation study

This paper describes the evaluation of the first phase of the Communication Project Apeldoorn (COPA). The aim of COPA was to investigate the contribution of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to quality of care and practice efficiency. In this project over 33 general practitioners (GPs), 12 pharmacists and two hospitals (with one management) participated. In order to limit the number of variables for the evaluation study a limited number of messages was implemented: free-text messages between GPs; admission/discharge reports from hospitals to GPs, laboratory test reports from hospital to GP. The goal of the evaluation of the first phase of the project was to study message flow, the effect of integration with the Electronic Medical Record and the use of those data for patient care. In order to compare the use of EDI with the original situation (i.e. regular mail) a baseline study was performed. In this study the procedure for handling laboratory test reports and admission/discharge reports was also investigated. The results of the baseline study were compared with the evaluation of the use of EDI.