As of January 2016 until 6 November doctors issued 7.5 million e-ZLA. Today, as many as 49 percent of sick leaves are issued by doctors in an electronic form. Electronic sick leaves will be obligatory as of 1 December 2018.

Minister @E_Rafalska in #KPRM: as of 1 December only #eLeaves will be binding. This is the end of paper leaves. pic.twitter.com/3j9nRDBQYw

— Ministry of Family (@MRPiPS_GOV_PL) 6 November 2018

145.6 thousand doctors are authorised to issue medical certificates, of which almost 105 thousand already have an electronic profile necessary to issue e-ZLA. From among 2.6 million of contributions’ payers (entrepreneurs) 2 million have a profile on PUE ZUS, with enables receiving e-leaves. What is important, 77 percent of payers have their profiles, who employ more than 5 employees and are obliged to receive leaves electronically.

Electronic sick leaves are beneficial both, for patients and their employers

• shifting away from the paper form of certificates; saving the time
• saving the time of the sick or parents of sick children, who do not have to deliver the sick leave to their employers in person;
• online access to data and Electronic Sick Leaves in the profile on ZUS Electronic Services Platform;
• the possibility to issue e-ZLA on mobile devices;
• the possibility to sign e-leaves with ZUS certificate;
• the possibility to set SMS or e-mail notifications about issuing a sick leave;
• immediate information to the employer of issuing by the doctor e-ZLA for the employee;
• the possibility to send one sick leave in an electronic form to all employers of the sick employee.

e-ZLA system is beneficial for doctors

• time saving: no necessity to manually fill in paper forms and autocompleting identification data in the electronic sick leave form upon entering by the doctor the patient’s PESEL (Personal Identification Number);
• automatically sending the e-leave issued by the doctor to ZUS system;
• no need to store copies of issued sick leaves by doctors;
• no need to collect ZUS ZLA forms at ZUS offices;
• a possibility to look through the patient’s previous medical certificates;
• a possibility to issue electronic leaves in so-called office applications;
• access to free of charge electronic signature with which doctors can sign sick leaves;
• a possibility to use assistance of a medical assistant while issuing e-ZLA.

Almost a half of sick leaves have an electronic form

Today, in the whole country, almost every second sick leave is issued in an electronic form by almost 50 thousand authorised doctors.  Back in January this year e-leaves comprised only approx. 10 percent of all issued leaves. Already over 1 million e-ZLA forms have been issued in office applications used by doctors. The largest number of e-leaves in comparison with traditional sick leaves were issued in October in West Pomeranian (59.4 percent), Mazovian (56.9 percent) and Podlaskie (55.7 percent) voivodeships. The smallest number of electronic sick leaves are currently issued in Lubusz (33 percent), Lublin (35.5 percent) and Greater Poland (35.9 percent) voivodeships.

The research conducted among doctors by ZUS imply that 3/4 doctors who have not issued e-leaves yet, do not do this since they are waiting until 1 December, when e-leaves will be obligatory. Whereas, every tenth of them (9.7 percent) is waiting for appointing a medical assistant.