Visitors in our patients’ lives

Our healthcare has been research and evidence-based for a long time. In Norway, this has resulted in a fragmented health service consisting of two levels and many discipline-based silos. To further improve quality, there are three principles that apply:

• Person-centred
• Holistic
• Proactive

"You are educated about these principles, but I meet many healthcare professionals who are frustrated that the system works against them," says Professor Gro Rosvold Berntsen from the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research. She believes that we need systemic changes.

Project manager Per Erlend Hasvold at the University Hospital of North Norway agrees.

"I've worked in the healthcare sector for almost 30 years. It's sad to hear the patient stories where we have failed. Not because we lacked resources, professionals, or knowledge. But because the structures we have created prevent good patient treatment," says Hasvold.

What is important to you?

In collaboration with the University Hospital of North Norway, the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research has developed a new website to improve healthcare professionals' and managers' understanding of why the patient's needs should be the foundation of a holistic service.

The website addresses the questions: What does it really mean to work in a person-centred way? How can we give substance to the terms person-centred, holistic, and proactive?

The answer may lie in a new question: What is important to you? This is both a philosophical question and a concrete methodology. The philosophical aspect helps us to understand what we mean by person-centred healthcare. The methodology has been developed by The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), and there is a "What is important to you?" day.

“We discuss prevention, different approaches to person-centred care, and integrated, holistic healthcare. But the real benefits will only be realised when we succeed in providing well-prepared healthcare services," says Hasvold.

Patient-centred healthcare team

PSHT is one way of putting the principles into practice (PSHT stands for patient-centred healthcare team.) PSHT consists of multidisciplinary teams that work together to treat the most complex patients. Hasvold believes that PSHT is most effective when healthcare professionals from both the municipality and the hospital work closely together and share an office. Employees in PSHT have been given the freedom to apply these principles in their work.

"Having good leadership support is extremely important, but it's also essential to create a shared understanding that we need to establish a common process around the patient," says Berntsen.

When you visit the website, you will encounter the stories of three people who have experienced improvements in their everyday lives thanks to follow-up from PSHT. These stories illustrate patients who often fall between the cracks in the healthcare system and who have complex and multifaceted needs. The stories are based on actual patient experiences, but the names and images used are fictitious.

"There's an expression that says you have to be healthy in order to be ill. This is especially true for patients with complex needs, as they must deal with many different organisations," says Hasvold.

Sharing success stories was an important motivation for the development of the website.

"Through PSHT, we have shown that it is possible to work in this way, and we have shown that it is effective," Berntsen emphasises.

Visit the website

You can learn more about working in a person-centred, holistic, and proactive way on the Person-centred healthcare website.

Hasvold explains that the target group for the website is threefold: those who are curious about person-centred healthcare, those who refer to or collaborate in patient-centred healthcare teams, and those who need to disseminate information about the service.

The website serves as both a training tool and a platform for networking. "We need to work together to create the necessary changes," says Berntsen.