Barriers to exchanging healthcare information in inter-municipal healthcare services: a qualitative case study.

Background: In recent years, inter-municipal cooperation in healthcare services has been an important measure implemented to meet future demographic changes in western countries. This entails an increased focus on communication and information sharing across organisational borders. Technology enables efficient and effective solutions to enhance such cooperation.

Critical issues for employees in inter-municipal health care services: a multiple case study.

Background: Traditional, hierarchical government structures have recently been challenged by increased complexity, fragmented services and heavy public demand. When healthcare services become fragmented and decentralised, they require redesign. Inter-municipal cooperation is a strategy to deal with current challenges and future demographic changes.

Point of Care Solutions: Implementation of Sustainable Service Models.

Recent health reforms and strategies have urged Norwegian municipalities to re-organize their services to prepare for new ways of combining traditional home-based services with technology-assisted point of care interventions. This paper presents the outcomes from a qualitative study on modelling the municipal health care services for the future. The aim was to study the organisation and operation of point of care solutions and identify critical factors for how to model the services of the future.

The EU project "United4Health": Results and experiences from automatic health status assessment in a Norwegian telemedicine trial system.

Introduction: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease require help in daily life situations to increase their individual perception of security, especially under worsened medical conditions. Unnecessary hospital (re-)admissions and home visits by doctors or nurses shall be avoided. This study evaluates the results from a two-year telemedicine field trial for automatic health status assessment based on remote monitoring and analysis of a long time series of vital signs data from patients at home over periods of weeks or months.

Important challenges for coordination and inter-municipal cooperation in health care services: a Delphi study.

Background: Demographical changes have stimulated a coordination reform in the Norwegian health care sector, creating new working practices and extending coordination within and between primary and hospital care, increasing the need for inter-municipal cooperation (IMC). This study aimed to identify challenges to coordination and IMC in the Norwegian health care sector as a basis for further theorizing and managerial advice in this growing area of research and practice.

Methods: A Delphi study of consensus development was used.