Ayesa renews its contract in the Basque Country to manage and improve the region’s electronic prescription service

e-Rezeta allows pharmacies to securely and efficiently manage prescriptions, something that has significantly improved the patient experience.

Ayesa, a global provider of technology and engineering services, has recently renewed its contract with the Basque Council of Pharmacists and the Official Pharmaceutical Society of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa.

The purpose of the contract, which will continue through to 2028, is to improve, upgrade and ensure the continuity of the technology services that underpin e-Rezeta, the electronic prescription system used by more than 800 pharmacies in the Basque Country. The achievement is a reflection of the trust placed in Ayesa by the Basque healthcare sector over the past decade.

The services provided by Ayesa are aimed at ensuring pharmacies have a reliable, efficient and easily accessible system that allows them to securely manage and fulfil electronic prescriptions. To this, the solution is integrated with the systems used by the Basque Department of Health and Basque Health Service. The result has been a significant increase in the patient experience.

The scope of the contract

The contract is centred around three main areas, each designed to respond to the operational requirements of the system and ensure its availability.

The first is the Service Desk. This offers support for users (i.e. pharmacists) by answering any questions they have and helping them deal with issues that arise with electronic prescriptions. This involves interacting with relevant professionals and organisations in order to quickly resolve incidents, as well as managing technical and safety documentation.

The second is the Technical Office, which manages and maintains the solution that connects pharmacies to the systems used by the Basque Department of Health and Basque Health Service. As such, it is responsible for supervising, upgrading and maintaining the software used by the region’s official pharmaceutical societies, as well as liaising with the organisations that develop the applications used by pharmacies. It also has a dedicated laboratory that verifies versions and analyses incidents in order to ensure the compatibility and effectiveness of all solutions that interact with e-Rezeta.

The third area is dedicated and comprehensive infrastructure maintenance services, which aim to ensure a secure and reliable service at all times. This includes preventive and corrective maintenance, as well as upgrades, for the servers, communication systems and databases that underpin the Basque Country’s electronic prescription system. A well-developed monitoring and warning system allows issues to be quickly and efficiently resolved, something that helps avoid disruptions and ultimately makes e-Rezeta more effective and secure.

The renewed contract places particular emphasis on continuous improvement. This will see Ayesa implement a number of improvements to e-Rezeta. It will also involve updating and modernising the system in response to advances in technology, new regulatory requirements, the changing needs of users and the latest security and safety standards.