Municipal online doctor

Description

The government has decided to pilot a municipal digital general practitioner service. The aim is to make public general practitioner services more accessible and timely, relieve other parts of the service, increase the use of digital services, contribute to more equal access to digital general practitioner services and increase satisfaction among citizens. The scheme is referred to as the municipal online doctor and is intended to supplement the GP scheme and municipal emergency services by allowing municipalities to offer video consultations for appropriate general medical issues.

The target group is residents without a need for immediate help who cannot get an appointment with their GP within a reasonable time, and who seek health care that falls within the scope of the service. The service is available via Helsenorge for residents in the pilot municipalities. The trial is led by the Directorate of Health.

The scheme will be evaluated to examine the extent to which the goals are being achieved. The Norwegian Centre for e-Health Research (NSE) has been commissioned to conduct a qualitative evaluation.

Goals

Objectives of the evaluation: how the service is experienced and assessed from the perspectives of patients, healthcare professionals and municipalities.

1. Map how municipalities organize and operate the online doctor service
2. What experiences do municipalities have with the establishment, recruitment, available expertise, and costs of the online doctor
3. Experiences of online doctors
4. Experiences of patients
5. Experiences of general practitioners

Method

The data collection includes: (1) group interviews with municipal stakeholders, (2) individual interviews with online doctors, (3) non-participant observation, (4) document analysis, (5) patient survey, (6) interview with GPs.