COLLABORATION. Sahlgrenska University Hospital now has a new website, that completely caters to patients. As part of an online effort, the hospital has now launched PatientWiki, where healthcare providers, together with the patients, create information for each other. Sahlgrenska Academy’s students, teachers and researchers are also welcome to contribute.
Just as the name suggests, it works like the Wikipedia encyclopedia, whose contents are easy to change and supplement by anyone of the University Hospital’s colleagues as well as its patients.
The idea behind PatientWiki is that the hospital’s colleagues are specialists in the examinations and treatments they do every at work.
“But the patient is an expert on their own disease. It is easy for doctors or healthcare personnel to ignore details that are extremely important to the patient when writing down patient information. Now the patient can go in and supplement it. Together, colleagues and patients create the best and most relevant information,” says SU’s web strategist, Linda Kullenberg.
PatientWiki contains information on examinations, diagnoses and treatments that are relevant to Sahlgrenska University Hospital. All of the units have been encouraged to update and fill in information during the spring. Under the heading My story, patients can share their experiences pertaining to a certain examination, diagnosis or treatment. My story can function as a support for other patients, but it can also give the hospital valuable information on how the patients experience care at the hospital. Currently, some 30 patients have shared their experiences.
Capturing patient viewpoints falls well in line with the value-based care work that the hospital runs, where what the patients’ experiences as valuable shall, largely, govern care. Moreover, the new patient legislation emphasizes information on the patient’s terms and greater patient participation.
“With this, we are taking an important step into the future and the modern way to integrate and conduct two-way communication with our patients,” says Anette Åquist Falkenrot, Chief Medical Informations Officer at the hospital.
The new external site will be successively filled with material that fact-reviewers select and outside contributions add. The site has approximately 150,000 visitors per month and even if there has not been a particularly great increase since PatientWiki was introduced, a website survey shows that those who use it are significantly more satisfied.
Some have been doubtful if it is correct to let the patients in, but for the most part the reactions have been extremely positive. Medical student Anna Rutgersson, who is nearly finished with her education, believes that PatientWiki can give the hospital greater credibility as a healthcare provider:
“The patient contributions make the information reality-based. That the sender, that is the hospital, is responsible for a review of what is written in the PatientWiki, makes the information more reliable.”
“I believe that as a doctor in the future, I will meet more patients that have had the opportunity to access the right information and have the right hopes and expectations of the hospital’s healthcare, thanks to PatientWiki,” she concludes.
Would you like to read or contribute to the information on PatientWiki? www.sahlgrenska.se/patientwiki
Text: Katarina Hallingberg and Carina Larsson, Sahlgrenska University Communications Department
Anna Rutgersson was photographed by Carina Larsson.
