Cooperation between two hospitals
An academic centre and general hospital have joined forces on the basis of a joint ambition to improve the regional care cycle. They aimed to implement the right healthcare at the right place, and ensure better outcomes for the patient. In doing so, the hospitals looked closely at their own profiles,and also at how they could supplement each other. They asked Vintura to assist them in drawing up joint care concepts. We started out by establishing administrative and substantive frameworks for joint care concepts, to ensure both comparability and the ability to roll the concepts out to other patient groups and/or hospitals.
Joint VBHC concepts
Based on three principles from Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC), the multidisciplinary teams from both hospitals drafted joint care concepts for four patient groups:
- Patient outcomes approach: determining outcome measures and setting up monitoring;
- Continuous improvement cycle: transparent evaluation between the teams on the basis of outcome measures;
- Integrated view of the chain: optimisation in the chain from first line to aftercare from the point of view of the patient.
In order to facilitate these care concepts, the teams have enabled information exchange and have established a central communication plan, together with the patient and referrer. By looking clearly at the entire care process from the patient’s point of view, the teams were able to go beyond their own limitations in determining the right care at the right place. Commitment and facilitation from administrators on both sides was an important enabler in this.
The right healthcare at the right place and better outcomes
The healthcare concepts were received positively by both directors and insurers. Those involved see it as a win-win situation: in the first place, the care cycle for the patient has improved immediately. In addition, and just as importantly, the culture of improvement between healthcare providers is strengthened, both within and between chain partners. This provides a foundation for the continuous improvement of healthcare.
By properly monitoring outcome measures and shifts between the two hospitals, the impact can be followed over time, with respect to both the improvement of patient care and the provision of the right care at the right place. This has also laid the foundation for collaborating with insurers to achieve integrated funding for outcomes.
Based on the current momentum between healthcare professionals and directors, a follow-up to the pilot was started with new patient groups, aimed at developing this for the most important focus areas in the coming years for both hospitals. Furthermore, the care concepts provide a good basis for the academic centre to deploy these with hospitals in other regions
