Improving healthcare access and availability with matching of care
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to contribute to the development of a model including parameters for matching health-care services to patients. Inspired by ‘engaged scholarship’, the researchers practised continuous and close collaboration with practitioners at Region Skane in Sweden. The agenda was based on questions and experiences that evolved from theory and experience gained during previous research, while the practitioners’ agenda was based on problems and solutions arising within the organisation. As a result, mutual interpretations and concept creation were created and thus also the exchange of knowledge, information and competence between researchers and practitioners. The thoughts concerning the parameters included in a matching model emerged during meetings. The supportive data was conceptualised, converted and incorporated into an array of parameters illustrating coordination and matching in healthcare. T he healthcare matching concept, meaning a specified form of coordination, was applied as the main concept in the study. One contribution regarded how the coordination of health-care services occurs in Region Skane. An additional contribution was a discussion about which parameters are essential to include in the development of a matching model. Finally, there was a consideration concerning what kind of social values the matching model created. A fruitful way of implementing a matching model in healthcare is making use of a pilot project at a smaller organisation in a Swedish region.
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Author's Biography
Catharina Wingner Leifland has a background in accounting and teaching. She has been working in the Department of Service Management and in the Department of Business Administration at Lund University as a Lecturer and Researcher in Health Management. Teaching includes courses in Health Management, Financial Accounting as well as Strategy and Management Control. Her research focuses on availability of health care and matching of health-care services, specifically why and how availability differs among places and how it could be improved through matching. Research interest also includes availability of health care from the perspective of digital health solutions. Before joining academia, Catharina had extensive experience in both auditing/accounting/finance at accounting firms and as CFO in private companies. For many years, consultancy work has complemented her position as lecturer and researcher. Catharina earned her Master of Science in Business and Economics at Lund University, complemented by a bachelor’s degree in Ethnology.
Lars Nordgren is Professor in Health Management at Halmstad University in Sweden. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and is Associate Professor in Service Studies at Lund University. Professor Nordgren has been active in several professional organisations and assumed leadership positions in different professional bodies. He has served as Hospital Director at different hospitals in the county councils of Kronoberg and Halland in Sweden and as the Director of Development in a county council of Halland. He has also headed the department of Organising and Development at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Currently, he is a member of the Regional Council for Halland County Council and of the Operating Committee for the Hospitals in Halland. Lars has done research concerning management and organising processes in healthcare and the dynamics of healthcare when it has been customer and market oriented. Other areas of research are value creation, service productivity and matching of patients. He has also studied merging processes of hospitals. Lars has published in several international journals on diverse aspects of the Swedish healthcare system, focusing on management and service in health-care delivery systems. His writing demonstrates the application of management and organisational behaviour theories to the study of specific issues relating to health. His work has a particular emphasis on policy initiatives that can improve the health status of Swedish citizens.
Citation
Leifland, Catharina Wingner and Nordgren, Lars (2023, June 1). Improving healthcare access and availability with matching of care. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 7, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/YTKS3447.
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