Ministry of Health and Welfare Ensures Safe Storage and Online Access to Medical Records Anytime, Anywhere
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that the 'Medical Record Storage System for Closed and Suspended Medical Institutions' service, which securely stores medical records from closed or suspended medical institutions and allows patients to conveniently access their records at any time, will launch on July 21.
Until now, most patient medical records from closed or suspended medical institutions were individually stored by the institution's founder after obtaining approval from the local public health center. As a result, founders bore the burden of protecting patient personal information and directly responding to requests for access or issuance of medical records, while patients faced the inconvenience of having to contact the founder. There were also cases where patients could not obtain their medical records because they were unable to reach the founder.
Even when records were stored at public health centers, there were instances where medical records could not be quickly found upon patient request, or, in the case of electronic medical records (EMR), the relevant program was not available at the health center, making access impossible.
With the launch of this new system, founders of medical institutions will no longer need to visit the local public health center to submit medical records when suspending or closing their institutions. Instead, they can directly transfer records from the electronic medical record system used at their institution to the Medical Record Storage System. The transferred electronic medical records will be securely stored on servers managed by the National Information Resources Service, and patients will be able to view or obtain the necessary medical records through the medical record issuance portal whenever needed.
The types of documents that can be issued include 17 key medical records required for insurance claims or certification, such as copies of medical certificates, treatment histories, and medical expense statements.
This storage system will also reduce the workload of public health centers affiliated with local governments, enabling them to save on personnel and budget.
Shin Hyeondu, Director of the Medical Information Policy Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, explained, "We have launched this medical record storage system to address the inconveniences experienced by the public regarding the storage system for medical records from closed or suspended medical institutions, such as the risk of personal information leaks and difficulties in issuing copies of medical records."
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