Regional cooperation

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Although the Finnish government’s health and social services reform fell through or was at least delayed building regional cooperation continues. The roles assigned to the organizer, the unincorporated enterprises and other service providers must serve the regional goals.

The key elements of the regional planning are, for example, building the organizer, organizing the unincorporated enterprises and ICT and financial administration, in particular creating knowledge management models. NHG offers its extensive experience and research base to use in regional development.

Contact:

Olli Tolkki

Vice President, Clients & Sales
olli.tolkki@nhg.fi / +358 400 339 195

The regional preparations in Uusimaa identified a critical need to define the content, practices and rules in the organization of health and social services. The aim was to prepare a document to describe the operating environment and goals of the health and social services organizer in Uusimaa, the organizer’s tools and levers for the strategic management of the service system and the actual duties and approaches of the organizer. The change management relied on NHG’s facilitation and structuring skills when defining and processing the document’s content.

NHG facilitated and supplied the required frameworks and background materials for workshop activities, which consisted of the defining the organizer’s duties, the resources available to guide the service system, the division of duties between the organizer and providers’ and the organizers’ decision-making mechanisms and processes. The outputs of the workshop were compiled and structured into a coherent document outline. The project management used the outline as a framework for the final writing process, supported by NHG.

The first version of Uusimaa county’s health and social services organizer document was sent for a public round of comments included:

  • The principles of structuring the health and social services organization operations
  • A description of the organizer’s operating environment, the roles of different parties and steering mechanisms as well as the organizer’s tools
  • A description and definition of the contents, mechanisms and processes in the health and social services organization operations

The municipalities of Central Uusimaa formed a Joint Municipal Authority for Social and Healthcare to organize the healthcare services in the region; afterwards, service production will also be transferred under the Joint Municipal Authority. We helped the ICT preparation team of the Joint Municipal Authority to draw up a roadmap for the organization of data administration in the Joint Municipal Authority, the control of the data system as a whole and to support changes in service production.

The roadmap was compiled together with the ICT preparation team of the Joint Municipal Authority. During the project, interviews were conducted with leaders of service production preparation teams and participants of national projects and regional preparations, and the observations and preparations were brought together and discussed by a large forum.

As a result of the collaboration, the Joint Municipal Authority has a better understanding of the changes needed in data administration and data systems related to the establishment of the Joint Municipal Authority as well as the ICT needs in service production and the related prioritization and scheduling.

Before the Central Ostrobothnia Joint Municipal Authority for Social and Health Services Soite began its operations, the financial and operational data in the region were collected into one system. Computation rules for the new organization were created for the municipal invoicing of basic services and to achieve a solution for reporting that would combine operations and the economy.

Reporting was carried out using a Numerus solution. Numerus reported on the data of basic services produced by Soite per municipality and independent of the organization. The data is compiled in Numerus from accounting and other source systems.

In 2017, Numerus was the primary solution for member municipality invoicing of the basic services of Soite. Numerus currently serves as one of the systems that brings together Soite’s financial and operational data. In addition, an annual financial statement analysis is produced for Soite where services are compared to other municipalities.

The project involved the planning and implementation of an incentive bonus model for the Central Uusimaa service voucher trial. The aim of the model was to encourage outpatient service providers to optimise their operations from the perspective of customers and care chains as well as to support investments in preventative care.

The project initiated by calculating the municipal, age group and service need capitations to encourage the treatment and activation of challenging population groups. Following this, an incentive bonus model was created where service quality, efficacy and cost-efficiency were measured according to the so-called triple aim model.

The model was adopted in the freedom of choice trial and proved to steer providers in the right direction. The model also encourages the continuous development of providers and their cooperation with others.

NHG is the project manager of the programme to address child and family services in South Karelia. The programme (abbreviated LAPE in Finnish) is a key project of the Government, aiming to strengthen the well-being of children, young people and families.

As project manager, NHG is responsible for the steering and systematic progress of the entire project including coordination, the networking of participants, change management and daily support for project personnel in South Karelia.

As a result of the workshop activities carried out under the programme, cross-administrational cooperation within the South Karelia Social and Healthcare District (Eksote) has increased and cooperation networks have grown. In addition, customer inclusion has been strengthened and the methods used when working with children and families have been reformed.