Large relief at health center in vulnerable area
The Fröslunda Health Center in Eskulstuna has managed to achieve good accessibility with light emergency care and support for sick leave in the care environment encountered in a multicultural area.
The Fröslunda Health Centre in Eskilstuna is a large, publicly run health centre with a complex mission in a multicultural context. As a highly busy clinic with approximately 15,500 listed patients, working methods and structures for good accessibility, equal care and a sustainable work environment are crucial to fulfilling the care mission. Foreign-born patients are a patient group that generally has significantly more difficulty than others in accessing the right care, and the threshold for Swedish primary care can be perceived as high and result in a crowding-out effect.
"We are working partly towards a complex psychosocial patient group with many multi-morbidities and with a high need for care. In order to increase access to care, we have opened up more entrances for patients," says Max Ingemansson, district physician and medically responsible physician. "Physical accessibility is a key factor in not discriminating against this patient group. We use a Light Emergency/Direct Reception where patients can prepare digitally for the doctor's visit, either via their own mobile phone or on a touch screen in the waiting room. The digital support creates a structure and provides a clear relief for me as a doctor and in the handling of this patient group."
För att öka tillgängligheten till vård har vi öppnat upp för fler ingångar för patienterna. Fysisk tillgänglighet är en nyckelfaktor för att inte diskriminera svaga patientgrupper.
Max Ingemansson, district physician and medically responsible physician
The patient is involved in their care journey
A report from the Swedish Ombudsman for Discrimination, DO, shows that people born abroad refrain from seeking care twice as often as people born in Sweden. For example, people are not always used to using a touch-tone telephone, and the telephone system places great demands on good language skills. The arrangement of telephone contact as the first step in booking an appointment at the health centre constitutes a clear obstacle for patients whose mother tongue is not Swedish and can lead to the exclusion of a patient group where morbidity is generally higher.
"We strive to provide more patient-involved care and make it easier for the patient to be more involved before the doctor's visit," says Marie Norrmén, operations manager at the Fröslunda health center. "A particularly big difference for both the patient and the medical team has been our work on improving the sick leave process."
All patients who may be on sick leave are required to submit a comprehensive description of their work capacity before their doctor's visit via a digital tool specially adapted for sick leave. The fact that the patient can calmly and peacefully decide on their health situation with their relatives and not end up in a stressful situation in the doctor's room opens up for a better dialogue and a significantly better basis to send to the Social Insurance Agency. The information in the tool is then first assessed by a rehab coordinator and then a doctor's visit is booked if necessary.
Marie Norrmén and Max Ingemansson, Fröslunda Health Center
Teamwork, good work environment and high availability
"The doctor is well prepared, gets a complete basis for writing a certificate and more time for the meeting with the patient. It saves a lot of time and effort from the doctors in handling sick leave," continues Marie Norrmén. "It is no secret that sick leave is experienced by many doctors in primary care as extremely stressful. The fact that we can improve the doctors' work environment in this way so concretely and at the same time involve the patients feels very stimulating."
The Fröslunda healthcare center has succeeded with digital solutions and working methods that involve the patient and increase the accessibility to physical care even for a weak patient group. The success lies in a clear strategy with goals of team collaboration, a good work environment and a high level of accessibility where the patient is always welcome. This has been both resource-efficient and developmental.
The fact that we can so concretely improve the doctors' work environment and at the same time involve patients feels very stimulating.
Marie Norrmén, Operations Manager
"It has been fantastic to be part of Fröslunda's accessibility work and free up resources for the patient groups with the greatest need," says Staffan Bjessmo, physician and founder of Collabodoc. "The collaboration with Fröslunda shows how important it is that digital supports are designed from the beginning with a clear operational focus, that they are easy to understand and easy to adopt. The risk is otherwise that the tools themselves may constitute an obstacle instead of facilitating vulnerable patient groups."
Together, we have an important task ahead of us to ensure that the digitalization of healthcare supports the transition to close care with good accessibility to both physical visits and digital healthcare contacts and where displacement effects do not become an effect of digitalization.
Read more about current services
Direct care
From booked meeting via cross-functional team to simple record keeping
Sick leave
Administrative relief, easier certificate writing and fewer additions