Key facts
Parliament and the Federal Council have identified an urgent need for action in the digitalisation of healthcare, in order to increase the efficiency of the healthcare system, the quality of treatment and the safety of patients. This will require standardised and reliable data. In addition, there is considerable room for improvement as regards digitalisation, optimisation of processes and modification of structures. The DigiSanté programme, to which around 50 projects were initially assigned, is intended to address these problems. DigiSanté is in the initialisation phase, which is due to be completed by the end of 2024 with the approval of the programme mandate. Over the next 10 years, the Confederation will be investing around CHF 625 million.
DigiSanté has been a key federal project since April 2023, and this is the first time it has been audited by the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO). The aim of the audit was to assess the focus and structure of the programme. The audit confirmed that the DigiSanté programme is very urgent and the desired improvements are necessary. Moreover, the programme is a key success factor for the implementation of the 2030 health strategy. The work undertaken so far is heading in the right direction.
The greatest risk lies in the lack of enforcement powers for the Confederation, in a complex environment with multiple stakeholders. In some areas, the Federal Council has no way of requiring individual stakeholders to take part. As a result, standards on data or interfaces, for example, remain optional for the stakeholders in the healthcare system, and are thus ineffective. In some areas, unless changes are made to the historical division of tasks in the healthcare system, the implementation of improvements remains uncertain, and the success of the programme will be limited.