Outside the box - Inside care
En deskriptiv studie om effektivitet i vården
AdministrationEffectivenessEfficiencyHealth carePatient involvementTime studyValueAdministrationEffektivitetHälso- och sjukvårdPatientinvolveringTidsstudieVärde
The study is based on a new approach on how Swedish healthcare is supposed to be controlled and organized. There is a renowned administration problem within Swedish healthcare, which seems to be an obstacle to exploit the resources to the fullest. The latest venture within the healthcare system is patient involvement, where the patients become co-producers of their own care, which aims to both improve and make healthcare more efficient. A few wards in Sweden have implemented this new approach whereupon the study intends to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency in some of these.The study is restricted to three wards, whereof two of these are inpatient wards and the other one is an outpatient ward, within the medical clinic in Jönköping County Council, which has implemented the patient involvement approach in their daily work. The methodology for this study is qualitative in its nature where a time study of personnel time allocation and supplementary interviews with managing nurses on the wards have been conducted. A thematic analysis was then conducted to analyse the generated data, which is connected and supported by the theoretical framework.The theoretical framework consists of theories regarding opportunities and assessing effectiveness and theories on what creates the quality and value of service organizations to assess the efficiency.The results show that all the investigated departments have a relatively high efficiency potential and the utilization of the resources of the department is acceptable. It is found that some efficiency is possible from both an inner and outer effectiveness perspective. The physicians were found to spend least time with patients, while nurses and assistant nurses spend more time with patients, who are linked with their potential for knowledge of what is perceived value for the patient. All wards are working with patient involvement in a way that seeks to increase patient knowledge about their own care, and the personnel?s knowledge of the patient's requests, which contributes to an external efficiency.It is finally found that the patient involvement approach does not directly lead to a high external efficiency. Much of the patient involvement that takes place has the goal of creating value for the patient, which it can do. Though, researchers argue that it is rather the interaction with the patient that provides knowledge of what exactly creates value, suggesting that the time spent with the patient is important.