This article provides a snapshot of primary prevention activities in hospitals in 20 European high-income countries, based on inputs from experts of the Observatory's Health Systems and Policies Monitor (HSPM) network using a structured questionnaire. We found that in the vast majority of countries (15), there are no systematic national policies on primary prevention in hospitals. Five countries (Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom) reported systematic primary prevention activities in hospitals, although in one of them (Cyprus) this was due to the fact that small hospitals in rural areas or less populated districts host providers of primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Population ageing and the prevalence of multimorbidity represent major challenges for healthcare systems. People who need long-term care have complex conditions requiring both health and social services. Informal caregivers are emerging as an important part of the long-term care ecosystem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVolunteers have been present in palliative care since its inception. With the development of palliative care systems, their role and position are changing. Given growing long-term care needs and limited resources in health and social care, volunteers are becoming an important resource in meeting these needs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Objectives: This paper investigates the feasibility and the perception of the nurse's role as the palliative care coordinator.
Background: Integrated care is a global imperative in all healthcare improvement processes. Due to Andrija Štampar's success in the organisation of public health services, Croatia today has more than hundred years of experience in care integration.
In Croatia, palliative care has been developing as an integral part of the health care system since 2014. This development is in line with the integrated care concept emerging in many countries. However, there are a number of implementation problems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis analysis of the Croatian health system reviews developments in its organization and governance, financing, provision of services, health reforms and health system performance. Croatia has a mandatory social health insurance system with nearly universal population coverage and a generous benefits package. Although per capita spending is low when compared to other EU countries, the share of public spending as a proportion of current health expenditure is high and out-of-pocket payments are low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Long-term care (LTC) is organized in a fragmented manner. Payer agencies (PA) receive LTC funds from the agency collecting funds, and commission services. Yet, distributional equity (DE) across PAs, a precondition to geographical equity of access to LTC, has received limited attention.
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