RESEARCH THAT IMPACTS. The final report on effective care that has now been submitted to the government, notes that highly effective care requires the patient to be more involved in their own care. Inquirer Göran Stiernstedt refers to, among other things, research conducted at the GPCC – Centre for Person-Centred Care at University of Gothenburg.
“We are extremely happy that our research impacted the investigation,” says Inger Ekman, Professor and Director of GPCC.
She continues:
“We have a number of ongoing studies and the findings we have presented up to this point, show that person-centered care is a work method that leads to more effective and humane care. Conducting controlled and comparative studies of work methods in care is complicated and requires a good and dependable study design, which we put enormous effort into achieving.
A person-centered work method can have clearly positive effects, for example, on consumption of inpatient care, quality of life and the patients’ safety. The investigation recommends that the organizational head create structures for utilizing the patients’ experiences, viewpoints and ideas in decision making and improvement work, and that they create organizational and technical solutions for utilizing the patients’ own efforts.
“We have just initiated a program for implementation research. We have seen that person-centered care has good effects and now we want to find out more on how to make the changes permanent and sustainable. We will examine what obstacles and possibilities exist that need to be revamped in healthcare,” says Inger Ekman
In his report, Inquirer Göran Stiernstedt notes that the patient’s needs are not currently the starting point when constructing organizations and devising work methods. Although personnel place the patient in the center and often feel that they work person-centered or patient-centered, the investigation means that it is doubtful if a systematic, consistently applied, work method that requires planning, integration and quality assurance for the changeover to person-centered care occurs in practice.
The investigation on effective care is the latest example of how person-centering as an approach in care is gaining ground. Recently SALAR (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions) adopted a congressional decision whereby the organization will work to introduce person-centered care in Sweden. Back in 2010, SALAR initiated the discussion on person-centered care that resulted in the congressional decision in fall of 2015.
