Sähköinen valtakirjaan perustuva puolesta-asiointi terveydenhuollossa

Authors

• Pirjo Hilama Itä- Suomen yliopisto
• Minna Rauhala HUS Tietohallinto, Sähköiset asiointipalvelut (Virtuaalisairaala), Helsinki
• Virpi Jylhä Itä-Suomen yliopisto, Sosiaali- ja terveysjohtamisen laitos, sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon tietohallinto, Kuopio
• Ulla-Mari Kinnunen Itä-Suomen yliopisto, Sosiaali- ja terveysjohtamisen laitos, sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon tietohallinto, Kuopio

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23996/fjhw.77585

Keywords:

power of attorney, authorisation, acting on behalf of someone else and electronic services, power of attorney, authorization, electronic services [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p23542], acting on behalf of someone else

Abstract

The electronic power of attorney to authorize someone else was first available in Finland December 2017 in a few regional e-Health services, such as South-Savo Hyvis.fi and Oulu Omahoito.fi. Currently the electronic power of attorneys are saved in the national authorization register with the Suomi.fi online service. The development work for acting on behalf of someone else was started due to feedback from the citizens. Legislative and other regulations are on the key role of electronic power of attorney in social and health care. The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) assembled a functional specification document for the development work in 2016. Implementation for service users proceeded through functional definition, and technological implementation and facilitation.

The aim of the research was to find out in which health care matters would citizens grant an electronic authorisation for somebody else to act on their behalf, to define how important they consider this matter at present and to obtain more knowledge of the needs of citizens to grant an authorisation (power of attorney) for somebody else to act on their behalf.

This research confirmed the knowledge of people using electronic services and their opinions. Citizens want to authorize their own children to act on their behalf in health care. They prefer to authorize to make the appointment for health care, and watching and renewing prescriptions. The more things off acting on behalf was close the disease itself or were related to care or treating illness, the more they hesitate to authorize electronically (power off attorney). Based on the results of this survey, it seems that the need for a person to act on behalf of someone else in health care cannot fully be imagined before the situation and the real needs are at hand.