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Background: Improper information transmission can lead to compromised patient safety and quality of life when patients are transferred from one setting to another. Electronic instruments may improve this situation, however, they are rarely used. Objective: The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the technical and organizational feasibility, usability, usefulness and completeness of an electronic instrument that is based on the German HL7 CDA standard for eNursing Summaries. Materials and methods: To this end, a test health telematics infrastructure, which included the German electronic health card, was established and nursing summary application was developed that allowed summary documents to be communicated between a hospital and a nursing home. The users were asked to evaluate the usability of the nursing summary application as well as to compare the usefulness and completeness of electronically and paper transmitted information. Results: This study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing an electronic nursing summary application that was based on the German HL7 CDA standard eNursing Summary and that was integrated in a test health telematics infrastructure. It could also be shown that the users rated this application as usable and that electronically supported patient transfers were superior to paper based ones. The use of the German electronic health card was regarded as a barrier by the users. Discussion: This study emphasizes the feasibility, relevance and barriers of electronically supported transfers of patients with nursing needs. Nurses working in hospitals and long-term care can integrate an application based on the HL7 CDA Standard ePfgebericht into their working processes and get better and more complete information. To ensure continuity of care in a sustainable manner in the future, the German HL7 CDA based eNursing Summary standard should become part of the German telematics infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the German E-Health-Law it will be mandatory to hand out a national medication plan (BMP) in printed form to all patients that have a prescription of three or more drugs to take at the same time starting 1st April, 2017. Part of this printout is a datamatrix code that encodes all medication information using the XML-based UKF (German: Ultrakurzformat) in order to include a means for a standardized electronic transfer of the data. Generated by the general practitioner, the medication plan also needs to be updated through medical specialists, clinical doctors or pharmacists. This paper documents, based on usage scenarios for the BMP, the long way from theory to practical use and points to organizational and technical hurdles that need to be overcome as part of the digitalization. Along with the implications for the process dimension, a technical infrastructure is introduced and different challenges in working with the UKF are identified and discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]