Sørlandet Sykehus HF (SSHF) was looking for digital solutions that could handle multiple patient pathways. They conducted a mini-competition within the framework agreement that Helse Sør-Øst has for digital home monitoring. With EG CheckWare, they found digital solutions to tailor various treatment pathways according to their own needs. Digital home monitoring with EG CheckWare is now a reality.
SSHF is one of Agder’s largest workplaces, with over 7,000 employees. SSHF provides specialist health services to over 300,000 people in its area, and its main tasks are patient care, research, education, and patient and next-of-kin training. The patient services cover both somatic care as well as mental health, substance abuse, and addiction treatment.
Helse Sør-Øst wants all hospitals in the region to implement new digital solutions for patient follow-up in private homes. Now Sørlandet Sykehus Health Trust (SSHF) has also used the framework agreement in Helse Sør-Øst to facilitate user-driven follow-up:
Patients' own registrations will in the future guide further follow-up and treatment at the hospital.
The choice of digital solution fell on EG CheckWare which, according to the award criteria, was rated best in quality compared to the four competitors. The agreement will cover up to 15,000 patients annually.
Project manager for PROM and PREM, Geirmund Glendrange, specifically highlights the form library.
− Much of our business logic aligns with what EG CheckWare can deliver. The supplier has a form bank with handling of various licenses that we find exciting. This has given us confidence that the solution can be used in many areas, says Glendrange.
− Being able to use rights-protected forms, which solve administrative challenges such as agreements, management, and billing, makes the job much easier for us, emphasizes the project manager.
He is complemented by Leif Steinar Brådland, head of Health ICT at the hospital. In the call for tenders, Sørlandet Hospital wrote that "the solution must offer a user interface that enables internal resources within the enterprise to develop forms and configure/set up new pathways without assistance from the supplier."
− We must be able to independently tailor our own solutions according to our needs. It has also been important for SSHF that the service can easily integrate with existing data systems at the hospital, he says, continuing with the specifics they have been looking for:
− Who is to be asked and when they are to be asked are threshold values that must work in a demand-driven outpatient clinic. EG CheckWare's solution has good role distributions and can combine several forms in the same dispatch. It has a rule-based engine that can facilitate custom calculations, in addition to a good consent module and follow-up of alerts, he says.
Sharing culture in South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority
For Sørlandet Hospital, it has been important that Vestre Viken has paved the way in advance. Vestre Viken wanted a solution "that ensures effective and good follow-up of their patients outside the hospital through, among other things, digital messages, sharing of information via rights-protected and self-developed electronic forms, collection of measurement data, and use of a digital self-management plan."
Elise Aksnes Omland, head of demand-driven outpatient clinic at SSHF, believes it has meant a lot that other health enterprises take the lead.
− We have had very good direct contact with Vestre Viken. They are several steps ahead of us, and we have been very fortunate to be able to follow in established tracks. We reuse what we can, with local adaptations. We will soon start the first two patient pathways for demand-driven outpatient clinic, epilepsy and vaginal prolapse. In total, 4 pathways will start simultaneously at Sørlandet Hospital. It is very convenient to know which forms to use and which people to talk to about implementation, she says.
Helge T. Blindheim, who is responsible for the South-Eastern health region at CheckWare, believes that intrinsic motivation is a key contributor to successful adoption:
− The process has indeed been effective from Sørlandet Hospital's side. They have taken several courses, and the hospital builds two of the pathways themselves. This self-sufficiency is part of our ambition as a supplier, says Blindheim.
All three representatives from Sørlandet Hospital are crystal clear that the staff are highly motivated to adopt new digital solutions:
− The professional environment is very ready to get a new tool, this is the way forward, no doubt, says Omland.
− This is a tool that meets many of our immediate needs, believes Brådland.
− It is very good to establish a proper success case within digitization in our health region, says Glendrange.
Dependent on enthusiasts
Elise Aksnes Omland believes that active staff and enthusiasts at the various hospital enterprises are crucial for progress:
− We have Bjørg in psychiatry who helps us with pathways. It is important to have enthusiasts within each clinic who put in significant personal effort and drive the digital projects forward. Our somatic services will benefit from what psychiatry has achieved, believes Omland.
Leif Steinar Brådland is concerned with building competence both in the short and long term.
− It is much easier to build components when we can learn from others, but in the long run, we also build competence within ourselves. In routine operations, we should not be dependent on enthusiasts, and ownership of the project must in any case rest at the director level with us, he says.
