Hospital maternity wards are required to log birth data within 24 hours of a delivery. The data is to be logged in the eRegister by authorised personnel using an electronic signature. It will contain such information as the location, time and date of the birth, details on the mother and newborn (e.g. sex, weight), the obstetrician who performed the delivery, whether it was an IVF pregnancy and if the mother abandoned her newborn.

The Ministry of Health is to have complete access to all data in the eRegister. However, a person wishing to see in real time the number of childbirths in any given area of the country can do so.

The eRegister will be located at the Ministry of Health's Data Centre (изчислителния център, in Bulgarian) and maintained by the Department of eHealth (отдел Електронно здравеопазване, in Bulgarian). The cost of creation is BGN 28 000 (approx. € 14 000).

The registration of births in the eRegister is the second obligation of this kind for Bulgarian hospitals. The first obligation concerns the logging of invasive cardiology interventions and it became applicable on 1 November 2011.

Similar actions will continue while more eHealth services and infrastructure are established, such as a(n):

• integrated healthcare information system;
• haematology register;
• cancer information system;
• register for the accreditation of hospitals and the training of medical staff;
• register of medical devices.

Further information:

• Original News Article - Bulgarian Ministry of Health (in Bulgarian)

• Related ePractice news article - BG: All hospitals to log invasive cardiology interventions in electronic register