Hospitals still demand paper despite digital care records

Hospitals in Upper Austria still require paper documents when admitting patients, even though care reports are available digitally, the Upper Austria Regional Audit Office says in a report reported by ORF. Audit Office director Rudolf Hoscher called for healthcare providers to adapt their workflows quickly to make use of digital systems.

Care homes run by Upper Austria’s social assistance associations already make their care reports available through ELGA, Austria’s electronic health record system. But hospitals say they do not know whether every care home is connected, the report says. This leads to extra work, with different services used to exchange health data instead of traditional faxing. A single digital solution is not yet in place.

The ÖVP also called for greater efficiency in the healthcare system. Its Upper Austrian parliamentary group leader, Margit Angerlehner, said digitalisation could help reduce duplicated work and benefit both patients and staff, particularly at a time of tight budgets.

The FPÖ said plans to connect all care homes to ELGA by 2027 should be pursued, adding that solutions must work in practice, information must be clear and sensitive health data must be handled responsibly. The SPÖ and the Greens criticised the continued use of faxing. SPÖ health spokesperson Peter Binder said faxing, which he described as an outdated form of communication, had been banned since January 1, 2025.

Green health spokesperson Brigitte Huber-Reiter said running digital and paper-based processes in parallel created extra bureaucracy rather than easing the workload of care staff. MFG state parliament member Dagmar Häusler said digitalisation should provide tangible benefits for patients and healthcare workers and should not add administrative work.