Customer Choice in Physiotherapy
Burmansson, Anneleen (2014)
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014120217811
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014120217811
Tiivistelmä
We live in an era of gradual patient empowerment, with increased patient choice, information sharing and transparency in health care as crucial drivers.
When customers are free to choose between providers, and information on services and quality are transparently available, competition will increase. This competition is believed to create a strong incentive for increased focus on quality. This means that, aside from the benefits for the customers, patient choice is a tool to reach a more qualitative, accessible, timely, safe and efficient health care system.
The dynamic of competition is still rather poorly understood in government-funded health care systems, such as in Finland. At this moment, very little research has happened on patient choice and information content needed to enable choice between providers.
The Social Insurance Institution (Kela) is offering freedom of choice between outpatient physiotherapy services for severely disabled people. However, the current information system is too limited and does not allow an informed choice.
A questionnaire was used to gain understanding of how severely disabled people and the people helping them in their daily decisions value freedom of choice between physiotherapy service providers and what kind of information they need to make this choice.
Severely disabled people and the people helping them with their decisions value the freedom of choice but are not satisfied with the information currently available on each option. One fourth of the customers look for information online, but are less satisfied with this in-formation than customers asking health care professionals.
Information on accessibility and quality of care are the most important aspects this patient group is looking for, combined with reviews from other customers.
Through benchmarking current Finnish information tools with tools operational in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, knowledge was gathered on how information tools are created and designed. This study provides evidence that information tools must be co-created by customers, providers and policy-makers. Once an information tool is operational, constant feedback and measurement of decision-quality is needed to improve the process. However, more research is needed to study the specific needs of different patient groups in Finland and more research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of how customers use comparative information in the decision-making process.
When customers are free to choose between providers, and information on services and quality are transparently available, competition will increase. This competition is believed to create a strong incentive for increased focus on quality. This means that, aside from the benefits for the customers, patient choice is a tool to reach a more qualitative, accessible, timely, safe and efficient health care system.
The dynamic of competition is still rather poorly understood in government-funded health care systems, such as in Finland. At this moment, very little research has happened on patient choice and information content needed to enable choice between providers.
The Social Insurance Institution (Kela) is offering freedom of choice between outpatient physiotherapy services for severely disabled people. However, the current information system is too limited and does not allow an informed choice.
A questionnaire was used to gain understanding of how severely disabled people and the people helping them in their daily decisions value freedom of choice between physiotherapy service providers and what kind of information they need to make this choice.
Severely disabled people and the people helping them with their decisions value the freedom of choice but are not satisfied with the information currently available on each option. One fourth of the customers look for information online, but are less satisfied with this in-formation than customers asking health care professionals.
Information on accessibility and quality of care are the most important aspects this patient group is looking for, combined with reviews from other customers.
Through benchmarking current Finnish information tools with tools operational in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, knowledge was gathered on how information tools are created and designed. This study provides evidence that information tools must be co-created by customers, providers and policy-makers. Once an information tool is operational, constant feedback and measurement of decision-quality is needed to improve the process. However, more research is needed to study the specific needs of different patient groups in Finland and more research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of how customers use comparative information in the decision-making process.