Possible ways to encourage more hospitals to join eHealth

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食物及衞生局

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Dear LIU Ying and WU Yuchen,

The Food and Health Bureau (FHB) has received your application under the
Code on Access to Information on 7 October 2021. Your application is now
under processing.

According to paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, you will
be informed of the latest progress of the case separately on or before 27
October 2021.

In the meantime, please contact us by e-mail at [1][Food and Health Bureau request email] if
you have any enquiry. Thank you.

(Miss S MAN)
Food and Health Bureau

From: Simon H WANG <[2][email address]>
To: [3][Food and Health Bureau request email],
Cc: Ying LIU <[4][email address]>
Date: 07/10/21 10:06 PM
Subject: Re: Requests on the possible ways to encourage more
hospitals to join eHealth

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir/Madam
Please kindly answer our questions by replying to the emails
from [5]accessinfo.hk generated from the two requests below and included
me and Ying LIU in the email loop
[6]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

[7]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

Cheers
Simon WANG

On Thu, Oct 7, 2021 at 10:01 PM Ying LIU <[8][email address]>
wrote:
Dear Food and Health Bureau staff,
We are students from Hong Kong Baptist University. Now we are doing
research based on the government program “e-Health Record Sharing System”
and trying to evaluate it and help promote it.

Given the purpose of eHealth which is to provide a territory-wide platform
for healthcare consultation, the participation of private health care
institutions should be further enhanced.

I have found that the main concern of private hospitals or clinics that
have not yet joined the system is technical difficulties for installing
the eHealth modules (e.g
：[9]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/tc/whats-new/...).
Although the government has developed suitable installation components,
the specific installation and commissioning process and subsequent system
management are unfamiliar and difficult for these agencies that are not
familiar with the interconnected system. Besides, hospitals that have
opened independent clinical management systems also need more efforts to
work out technical problems before uploading data to the eHealth platform
.

In order to explore the government’s latest push for eHealth, here are my
questions for the bureau to answer under the Code on Access to
Information.
1. I did a search on the participation level of private healthcare
hospitals, but only found the name list of private institutions that have
joined eHealth ([10]https://apps11.ehealth.gov.hk/hcp/tc/ ) . To have a
specific idea of the proportion of private hospitals that have joined at
present, I prefer to get the percentage of the private hospitals and
clinics that have joined eHealth. Therefore, can I get the total number of
private hospitals, clinics and private companies in Hong Kong that are
eligible to join eHealth? What criteria does a company or a clinic have
to meet in order to be eligible?
2. The government has so far only provided the contact information of the
electronic health record service provider for private medical institutions
to install the eHealth system, but has not provided financial support for
hospitals to hire the provider. In this case, has the bureau received any
applications from private hospitals or clinics for financial support to
get technical services?
What is the average cost for a clinic to install and maintain the Clinic
Management System(CMS) ? We understand that the costs would vary depending
on a range of factors. Yet, please provide some estimates/ ballpark
numbers and explain how the numbers were estimated.
3.I find this “Five Partnership Model”
([11]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/filemanager/c...
)is useful to understand the development of the eHealth system and think
of Improvement suggestions for eHealth. I hope to get more details about
the fourth model.
3a. Could you provide more contextual information about these five models?
Under what circumstances were these models proposed and for what purposes?

3b. For each of the partnership models, please provide
1. The number of partners that the government has been working with

2. reports/ summaries of the partnership projects
3. Other documents related to the model
4. Amount of funding devoted
5. Timelines of the projects

4a Is it possible for the bureau to partner with the Innovation and
Technology Commission who has the Technology Voucher Programme（TVP）to
create a fund that helps small clinics to install and maintain
eHealth-related systems? Please comment on the feasibility of this
proposal.
4b To what extent does the bureau consider TVP as a suitable funding
source for small clinics.
5. For the PPP programmes, does the bureau expect the private partners to
join eHealth? To what extent could eHealth facilitate the programmes?
Please answer the two questions regarding the overall PPP programmes and
provide further details with respect to the specific programmes if needed.

6. In what ways does the bureau plan to encourage more private
institutions to join eHealth?
In short, I consulted a lot of information and the above questions that I
would be grateful for if the government could help me answer.
We also make the same request through Acessinfo, here are the links:
[12]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

[13]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

Yours cordially，
LIU Ying
WU Yuchen

show quoted sections

Dear Food and Health Bureau staff,

We are students from Hong Kong Baptist University. Now we are doing
research based on the government program “e-Health Record Sharing System”
and trying to evaluate it and help promote it.

Given the purpose of eHealth which is to provide a territory-wide platform
for healthcare consultation, the participation of private health care
institutions should be further enhanced.

I have found that the main concern of private hospitals or clinics that
have not yet joined the system is technical difficulties for installing
the eHealth modules (e.g
：[17]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/tc/whats-new/...).
Although the government has developed suitable installation components,
the specific installation and commissioning process and subsequent system
management are unfamiliar and difficult for these agencies that are not
familiar with the interconnected system. Besides, hospitals that have
opened independent clinical management systems also need more efforts to
work out technical problems before uploading data to the eHealth platform
.

In order to explore the government’s latest push for eHealth, here are my
questions for the bureau to answer under the Code on Access to
Information.
1. I did a search on the participation level of private healthcare
hospitals, but only found the name list of private institutions that have
joined eHealth ([18]https://apps11.ehealth.gov.hk/hcp/tc/ ) . To have a
specific idea of the proportion of private hospitals that have joined at
present, I prefer to get the percentage of the private hospitals and
clinics that have joined eHealth. Therefore, can I get the total number of
private hospitals, clinics and private companies in Hong Kong that are
eligible to join eHealth? What criteria does a company or a clinic have
to meet in order to be eligible?
2. The government has so far only provided the contact information of the
electronic health record service provider for private medical institutions
to install the eHealth system, but has not provided financial support for
hospitals to hire the provider. In this case, has the bureau received any
applications from private hospitals or clinics for financial support to
get technical services?
What is the average cost for a clinic to install and maintain the Clinic
Management System(CMS) ? We understand that the costs would vary depending
on a range of factors. Yet, please provide some estimates/ ballpark
numbers and explain how the numbers were estimated.
3.I find this “Five Partnership Model”
([19]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/filemanager/c...
)is useful to understand the development of the eHealth system and think
of Improvement suggestions for eHealth. I hope to get more details about
the fourth model.
3a. Could you provide more contextual information about these five models?
Under what circumstances were these models proposed and for what purposes?

3b. For each of the partnership models, please provide
1. The number of partners that the government has been working with

2. reports/ summaries of the partnership projects
3. Other documents related to the model
4. Amount of funding devoted
5. Timelines of the projects

4a Is it possible for the bureau to partner with the Innovation and
Technology Commission who has the Technology Voucher Programme（TVP）to
create a fund that helps small clinics to install and maintain
eHealth-related systems? Please comment on the feasibility of this
proposal.
4b To what extent does the bureau consider TVP as a suitable funding
source for small clinics.
5. For the PPP programmes, does the bureau expect the private partners to
join eHealth? To what extent could eHealth facilitate the programmes?
Please answer the two questions regarding the overall PPP programmes and
provide further details with respect to the specific programmes if needed.

6. In what ways does the bureau plan to encourage more private
institutions to join eHealth?
In short, I consulted a lot of information and the above questions that I
would be grateful for if the government could help me answer.
We also make the same request through Acessinfo, here are the links:
[20]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

[21]https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/possibl...

Yours cordially，
LIU Ying
WU Yuchen

From: Ying Liu <[22][FOI #836 email]>
To: FOI requests at Food and Health Bureau
<[23][Food and Health Bureau request email]>,
Date: 07/10/21 09:56 PM
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Possible ways to
encourage more hospitals to join eHealth

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Food and Health Bureau,

We are students from Hong Kong Baptist University. Now we are doing
research based on the government program “e-Health Record Sharing System”
and trying to evaluate it and help promote it.

In order to make it more convenient for the staff to answer our questions,
we chose to divide the six questions into two letters and send them to the
bureau. Here is the second letter.

4a Is it possible for the bureau to partner with the Innovation and
Technology Commission who has the Technology Voucher Programme（TVP）to
create a fund that helps small clinics to install and maintain
eHealth-related systems? Please comment on the feasibility of this
proposal.

4b To what extent does the bureau consider TVP as a suitable funding
source for small clinics.

5. For the PPP programmes, does the bureau expect the private partners to
join eHealth? To what extent could eHealth facilitate the programmes?

Please answer the two questions regarding the overall PPP programmes and
provide further details with respect to the specific programmes if needed.

6. In what ways does the bureau plan to encourage more private
institutions to join eHealth?

In short, we consulted a lot of information and the above questions that I
would be grateful for if the government could help me answer.

Yours faithfully,

Ying Liu

WU Yuchen

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request under the Code of Access to Information facilitated via
the accessinfo.hk website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[24][FOI #836 email]

Is [25][Food and Health Bureau request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Food and Health Bureau? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[26]https://accessinfo.hk/en/change_request/...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[27]https://accessinfo.hk/en/help/officers

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Ying Liu <[28][email address]>
To: FOI requests at Food and Health Bureau
<[29][Food and Health Bureau request email]>,
Date: 07/10/21 09:49 PM
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Possible ways to
encourage more hospitals to join eHealth

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Food and Health Bureau,

We are students from Hong Kong Baptist University. Now we are doing
research based on the government program “e-Health Record Sharing System”
and trying to evaluate it and help promote it.

Given the purpose of eHealth which is to provide a territory-wide platform
for healthcare consultation, the participation of private health care
institutions should be further enhanced.

I have found that the main concern of private hospitals or clinics that
have not yet joined the system is technical difficulties for installing
the eHealth modules (e.g
：[30]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/tc/whats-new/...).
Although the government has developed suitable installation components,
the specific installation and commissioning process and subsequent system
management are unfamiliar and difficult for these agencies that are not
familiar with the interconnected system. Besides, hospitals that have
opened independent clinical management systems also need more efforts to
work out technical problems before uploading data to the eHealth platform
.

In order to explore the government’s latest push for eHealth, here are my
questions for the bureau to answer under the Code on Access to
Information.

1. I did a search on the participation level of private healthcare
hospitals, but only found the name list of private institutions that have
joined eHealth ([31]https://apps11.ehealth.gov.hk/hcp/tc/ ) . To have a
specific idea of the proportion of private hospitals that have joined at
present, I prefer to get the percentage of the private hospitals and
clinics that have joined eHealth. Therefore, can I get the total number of
private hospitals, clinics and private companies in Hong Kong that are
eligible to join eHealth? What criteria does a company or a clinic have
to meet in order to be eligible?

2. The government has so far only provided the contact information of the
electronic health record service provider for private medical institutions
to install the eHealth system, but has not provided financial support for
hospitals to hire the provider. In this case, has the bureau received any
applications from private hospitals or clinics for financial support to
get technical services?

What is the average cost for a clinic to install and maintain the Clinic
Management System(CMS) ? We understand that the costs would vary depending
on a range of factors. Yet, please provide some estimates/ ballpark
numbers and explain how the numbers were estimated.

3.I find this “Five Partnership Model”
([32]https://www.ehealth.gov.hk/filemanager/c...
)is useful to understand the development of the eHealth system and think
of Improvement suggestions for eHealth. I hope to get more details about
the fourth model.

3a. Could you provide more contextual information about these five models?
Under what circumstances were these models proposed and for what purposes?

3b. For each of the partnership models, please provide

a. The number of partners that the government has been working with

b. reports/ summaries of the partnership projects

c. Other documents related to the model

d, Amount of funding devoted

e. Timelines of the projects

Yours faithfully,

Ying Liu

WU Yuchen

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request under the Code of Access to Information facilitated via
the accessinfo.hk website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[33][email address]

Is [34][Food and Health Bureau request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Food and Health Bureau? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[35]https://accessinfo.hk/en/change_request/...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[36]https://accessinfo.hk/en/help/officers

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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