Mapping the concentration of healthcare

"Through extensive data extraction and analysis, we have visualized the volumes of healthcare and its relationships. This has given us keys in the work with how healthcare can be organized in the future." 

Levi Siljemyr, Programme manager: Concentration of healthcare for increased quality and accessibility

In their work with increasing accessibility and quality for patients, Region Västra Götaland (VGR) has investigated possibilities for increased concentration of healthcare production. In this context, Kairos Future alongside Fujitsu built a model to quantitatively study the current situation and provide suggestions on activities which could be concentrated. 

The study was based on data from roughly 12 million measures taken in the VGR healthcare. The vast amount of different types of measures, around 7600 unique measure codes which could be divided into 1200 groups, posed a challenge in narrowing the scope and identifying the actions with the greatest potential of concentration. This was done through a quantitative analysis, where measure groups where quantified along eight dimensions linked to concentration, complexity and quality. 

The analysis, in turn, served as a basis for discussions and workshops with experts within VGR which amounted to a set of principles for identifying the areas of measures most likely to lead to concentration. Consequently, the amount of measure groups was reduced from 1200 to 188, and then further boiled down by two independent expert reviews to a total of 24 groups of particular concentration potential. 

Another aspect of the quantitative study mapped patient and medical dependencies between actions, by measuring the extent to which each couple of actions were performed by the same doctor on the same patients. The resulting networks clearly showed dependencies between actions and competence. In this way, risks related to concentration – such as patients being forced to travel between hospitals in their treatment or division of competency clusters – could be avoided. 

Through the situational analysis and the emerged proposals, VGR has proceeded in their work with concentrating healthcare for increased quality and accessibility.

"It has been important to, once and for all, utilize all our data in order to understand our degree of concentration. Besides, now having a material which we can dig further into is a bonus."

Levi Siljemyr, Programme manager: Concentration of healthcare for increased quality and accessibility