Μake us preferred on Google Greece is launching a new electronic prescribing system for patients hospitalized in public hospitals, bringing the management of inpatient medication into a unified digital system.
The electronic prescribing system went into operation on September 1, according to the Ministry of Health, as part of the digital transformation of Greece’s National Health System (ESY).
For the first time, medication administered during a patient’s hospital stay will be recorded electronically and tracked throughout the entire process — from the doctor’s prescription to its processing by the hospital pharmacy and its administration to the patient.
The system will create a complete digital record of each patient’s medication, with the aim of improving patient safety and reducing errors.
How the new system works
Doctors will enter patients’ medication electronically, making the information available throughout the subsequent stages of treatment.
Hospital pharmacies will be able to see exactly which medications have been ordered, while the system will record the treatment process through to the point at which the medication is administered to the patient.
The move is expected to significantly reduce the use of handwritten medical orders and repeated data entries that have required time from doctors and nursing staff.
Digitizing the process is also intended to reduce errors caused by difficult-to-read handwriting, omissions or duplicate entries.
At the same time, health care professionals will have access to a unified overview of each patient’s medication during hospitalization.
The system also incorporates approved treatment protocols into the inpatient prescribing process. Rather than simply replacing a handwritten form with a digital one, it creates an organized environment in which information about each patient’s medication is collected and managed.
The goal is to give health care professionals a more complete picture of the treatment each patient is receiving and reduce the possibility of discrepancies or omissions during hospitalization.
Medication tracking from prescription to patient
A key feature of the system is full traceability of medication.
Each medication can be tracked from the moment a doctor issues an electronic order, through its processing by the hospital pharmacy, and finally to its administration to the patient.
This creates a clearer and more controlled framework for managing medication inside hospitals. It also provides additional information if the course of a particular medication needs to be reviewed.
Better data on hospital drug spending
The system is also designed to provide more detailed data on medication consumption across Greece’s public hospitals.
The Ministry of Health will have a clearer picture of which medications are being used, the quantities consumed and the needs of individual hospital units.
The data will be used to monitor pharmaceutical spending, identify deviations in consumption and improve planning for medication procurement.
The digitization of inpatient prescribing therefore links patient safety with more efficient management of the National Health System’s resources.
Another step in Greece’s digital health transition
Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis described the launch as another important project in the digital transformation of the National Health System.
Electronic prescribing has already changed the way outpatient care is managed in Greece and is now being extended to medication prescribed inside hospitals.
The change moves a process that had relied on handwritten entries and multiple administrative steps into a unified digital environment.
The next challenge will be the smooth implementation of the system in hospitals and the effective use of the data it generates, with the stated goals of improving patient safety, reducing administrative work for health care professionals and managing pharmaceutical spending more efficiently.
