Problem

In recent years, there have been a number of systemic changes and digital transformations in the healthcare sector of Ukraine that mitigate corruption risks in it. In particular, the electronic healthcare system, an information and communication system that allows automating the workflows of healthcare entities, creating, reviewing, and exchanging medical information in electronic form, has been launched.
Given the need to ensure patient access to the management of their own medical data, as well as the quality, safety and accessibility of medical services, and to reduce the number of corruption risks, the electronic healthcare system should be improved.
First of all, the electronic healthcare system should be integrated with other information systems and state information resources, as otherwise it will lead to consolidation of unverified information in the register, as well as to the need for cooperation in manual mode, which carries risks of subjective interference and errors, as well as slow data exchange. In addition, as the Accounting Chamber found that the inadequate integration created conditions for payments in respect of declarations of citizens who did not actually have the opportunity to see a primary care doctor (due to conviction, staying abroad, enlistment for military service, etc.)
In addition, medical professionals and healthcare facilities are forced to use inefficient tools related to maintaining a large number of hardcopy forms of medical records, including medical charts, and collecting statistical information. This leads not only to the parallel existence of hardcopy and electronic forms, including two routes for a patient – the old one (paper-based) and the new one (electronic), which often contradict each other, but also to the continued existence of other sources of information about medical services provided in Ukraine, besides the electronic healthcare system.
It is worth separately mentioning the need to implement tools for assessing the functional status of a person according to the adapted International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in the electronic healthcare system. The main advantage of the classification developed by the World Health Organization is a conceptually new approach to health assessment: looking at a patient not from the point of view of a diagnosis, but from the point of view of the potential for recovery and needs (surgical interventions, rehabilitation, etc.) in order to improve the patient's productivity.
For a long time, one of the most common corrupt practices in the healthcare sector has been making unofficial payments to a healthcare worker (cash or gifts) or providing services to them for issuing medical certificates. For example, the Internet and bulletin boards are full of information about the availability of such certificates through intermediaries without having to undergoing a medical examination (falsified or valid, but definitely issued without legal grounds).
The problem of corruption in medical and social examination procedures has long been recognized as an important task in the complex of health care reforms. For example, the current procedure allows dishonest members of medical and social expert commissions to subjectively vary which disability group to establish and for how long.
The process of issuing sick leave certificates is accompanied by unfair practices and corruption (e.g., the "sale" of forged documents by third parties, or doctors entering false information to simulate a person’s incapacity for work). They are facilitated by the hardcopy form of sick leave certificates, which is easier to reproduce by third parties and does not record the time of their issuance.