Sormland County Council spearheads Swedish use of electronically signed documents

Sormland County Council spearheads Swedish use of electronically signed documents The Sormland County Council is first in Sweden to replace traditional paper documents with electronically signed documents on the Internet. Patients will receive information more rapidly and administrative costs will decline. The Swedish company Sign On (publ) has developed the system for electronically signed documents. The Sormland and Stockholm county councils are pioneering the use of electronically signed documents on the Internet in Sweden. Once fully in use, the new system will reduce the time required to handle information and save millions of Swedish crowns. "Using electronically signed documents saves both time and money. A physician that needs to refer with a specialist in another city, for example, will save at least half a day by not using the mail," says Andreas Halvarsson, Vice President of Sign On. The Sormland County Council is testing electronically signed documents in a six-month internal pilot program involving medicine prescribed at discharge, requests for time off, letters of referral and travel compensation. Thanks to electronically signed documents, a general practitioner can consult a specialist and receive a reply within 24 hours or less. "Mailing a question to a specialist and receiving a reply usually takes two days. The system currently being tested by the county council only requires the reply to be mailed. With electronically signed documents, however, the entire procedure can be handled over the Internet and a physician can receive a reply within a few minutes - perhaps while the patient is still there," says Andreas Halvarsson. As of January 1, 2001, electronically signed documents are as valid as a handwritten signature. For further information, please contact Andreas Halvarsson, Vice President of Sign On, at Ph: +468-555 290 07,mobile: +4670-545 95 95, e-mail: andreas.halvarsson@signon.se Sign On AB (publ) is noted on OM, Stockholm Exchange, the New Market at the Stockholm Exchange. The company has produced and sold subscriptions for electronic forms since 1996. Sign On has developed the software program FormPipe, a complete system for handling electronically signed documents and agreements. At present, Sign On has about 50 employees and is a Swedish agent for Sign Form, an international Internet based database for all types of forms that authorities, companies and private people require. SignForm currently has offices in 11 countries. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/04/20010302BIT00760/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/04/20010302BIT00760/bit0001.pdf