The arrival of digital recipes
According to Ramírez and Pascual, the ugly handwriting of doctors is not exactly the efficient cause of the recent push for digital prescriptions, but rather the advancement of technology, the increase in teleconsultations as a result of the pandemic, and the desire to have a better control over the clinical history of patients.
Hence, the Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies has authorized an initiative to promote the use of electronic medical prescriptions, in order to improve the operation of health systems in Mexico.
Margarita García García, federal representative of the Labor Party (PT), proposes that this change begin on January 1, 2024, but not before training the employees involved and providing more digital tools to the medical units of the National System of Health.
“It is essential not to overlook or unnoticed what has an impact on this issue; everything related to personnel, places, human resources. We must all update ourselves and make use of technology”, declares the legislator in a release published by the Chamber of Deputies.
Then there would still be a few months left to refine the conditions of the public health system that, unlike the private sector, has not yet adapted to the era of digital tools.
“Most of the population continues to be served in the public sector, where some institutions do not even have computers or tablets connected to the Internet; In those hospitals, everything is still done on paper,” says Juana Ramírez.
The resistance of the unions of health workers, according to Ramírez, is another factor to take into account, since these organizations have considered the incorporation of digital prescriptions as an additional task not formally established in the contract of the unionized doctors.