Regionala strategier för Nationell eHälsa. Strategier som bör följas regionalt för att realisera huvudmålen för nationell eHälsa.

Abstract

Today’s organizations face constant changes and challenges. There is a strong pressure on organizations to think innovative and to find new smart ways to work in order to constantly stay competitive and thus create an effective business. The Swedish health care has experienced major radical changes in recent years. Today’s technology combined with the globalization that Swedish health care organizations are experiencing causes constant changes, complex change management and major challenges. In Sweden, the health care sector is facing major changes, challenges and opportunities. The pressure is increasing on using smart, modern, safe and simple eHealth services that will enable, through information- and communication technologies (ICT), collaboration across organizational boundaries to provide cross-border healthcare. The politicians have developed the concept of eHealth as an umbrella term that refers to a number of ICT-based solutions for health care as well as the patient’s interaction with the medical staff. A concept which is considered as an important prerequisite for the evolution of health care both nationally and internationally. Significant investments in the National Strategy for eHealth have occurred over the last five years but there is still much to do. In a heterogeneous environment with many different stakeholders and actors like the health care in Sweden, changes and change management means a major challenge which is characterized by complexity. This places high demands for better cooperation and coordination between the government, municipalities and count councils. It is a major challenge to successfully implement the national recommendations in 290 autonomous municipalities. The purpose of this essay is to study the strategies that should be followed regionally in order to realize the main objectives of the National eHealth. The aim is also to study and to get a clear picture of the coordination between the various municipalities within the regional unit and how they interact with each other in order to live up to the main objectives of the National eHealth. The main question is: Which strategies should be followed in order to realize the main objectives of the National eHealth? It is clear from the results of the study that there is a good documentation of the national objectives to be met. However, it takes more structured and concrete action plans, clear roles and responsibilities and continuous monitoring and evaluation to achieve a successful regional strategy. A regional strategy should be designed with the aim to practically be used in the business. It is important that health care profession have more influence in the development process from the beginning in order to be able to contribute their skills and identify the real needs of the business, but also to achieve a high acceptance from the health care profession in the case of a change in the work process.