Patient-centered services

Patients, authorities and employees in the health sector believe that a radical reorganization of health services is needed for patients with long-term and complex needs. It is not one patient group, but consists of people with completely different diagnoses and needs. It is common that they need a lot of assistance from the health service, and from different parts of the health service. They often have chronic diseases, but it does not have to be just that. This often also applies to:

• Vulnerable children and young people
• People with mental illness
• Fragile elderly
• People with multiple chronic conditions

These types of recipients of health services are not many in number, but have great needs. They often have to go through multiple instances to get help, and also experience becoming so-called "revolving door patients" - who are admitted again and again, without receiving better help. This is partly due to the fact that the various services of the health care system do not interact as well with each other. When patients have several diagnoses, there are gaps and interruptions in the treatment, and it is not coordinated: not between the service levels nor inside the hospital. Patients with multiple diagnoses and complex needs may risk ending up as "hot potatoes" in the health care system. Sometimes they also have to coordinate their received services themselves.

The use of ICT tools for better interaction between patients and health professionals is central to achieving a better range of services for these vulnerable patients.

The Norwegian Centre for E-health Research is involved in the project 3P - Patients and professionals in partnership. The goal is a patient-centered health service (PSHT). The project aims to understand the prerequisites for the development of a "comprehensive health care system", which provides better health, better patient experiences and reduced costs.