Electronic Patient Record

The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) is fully regulated by federal law (EPRA). As a virtual record, it contains the information relevant for treatment and documents of the individual patient. Hospitals and nursing homes must have joined a certified EPR community by April 2020 and April 2022, respectively. For patients and ambulant health providers (medical practices, Spitex, pharmacies, etc.), participation in the EPR is voluntary.

The EPR will initially contain partially structured data such as medical reports as PDF documents or X-ray images as images. Structured data will follow subsequentially, starting with medication, lab reports and vaccination data. Technically, the EPR is a distributed system, containing copies which refer to the documents in the primary systems of the health providers.