Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare > Volume 15, Number 3 > Pp. 129-131

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An economic analysis of the national shared emergency care summary in Scotland

Tom Jones ^* , Alexander Dobrev , Jonathan Cameron , Libby Morris , Karl A Stroetmann  and Veli N Stroetmann 

^* TanJent Consultancy, Hereford, UK; Empirica Communication & Technology Research, Bonn, Germany; National Information Services Group, National Services Scotland, Edinburgh, UK; Scottish Clinical Information Management in Primary Care, Edinburgh, UK

Correspondence: Tom Jones, 10 Gruneisen Street, Hereford, HR4 0DX, UK (Fax: +44 1432 268 100; Email: tomjones{at}tanjent.co.uk)

The Emergency Care Summary (ECS) in Scotland provides essential clinical and demographic information about patients needing unscheduled or emergency care. Information about patients’ medications, adverse drug reactions and allergies is transferred twice every day from GP systems to the ECS. Access is then available to authorised health-care professionals at the national help line, at out-of-hours services and in accident and emergency departments. An economic analysis of the ECS implementation showed that annual benefits exceeded annual costs after about seven years. Approximately 77% of the benefits were non-financial and 23% from redeployed finance. No cash savings were planned and none were realised. As ECS utilisation increased from 2006, the net benefits became positive. This relationship between utilisation and net benefits is a common feature of successful e-health investment.

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