Telemedicin som stödtjänst : Vårdprocessen ÖAK-2004, för övre abdominell kirurgi vid Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Huddinge

Sammanfattning: Sweden’s health care is continuously subjected to economical cutbacks, which results in enormous workloads. To prevent problems that arise in these situations, it is of great importance to take measures to increase the efficiency of the working process. This goal can be obtained by increasing our knowledge of the body, under both normal and sickly conditions. That is, by sharing knowledge of the various medical service units within Stockholm’s county council and thus elaborates diagnostics. Both clinical and scientific competence must be at hand within several medical fields, whereas the width is a condition for specialized surgery and education within different categories. The purpose of this essay is to describe the profits/advantages by using telemedicine at Karolinska university hospital in Huddinge as support service for the structural changes made by Stockholm’s county council, this from county council economics perspectives. The decision that all abdominal surgery was to be performed at Karolinska was based on the knowledge and experience that by concentrating a certain type of special care to a single location, that knowledge will be maximized (the more patients, the more practice), which will ease the prospects of high-quality health care, education as well as research. Telemedicine as a support service means specialist availability through telemedicine information technique and healthcare time efficiency. This in the form of traveling hours, new evaluation of already remitted patients and time consumption due to inferior examination. The increase in efficiency will result in cost-benefits for Stockholm’s county council and entirely new grounds fore coworkers and patients. The new system will lead to that the most highly qualified within a certain area of expertise are available through exchange of knowledge, going from specialist to doctor. As a result, the patients will faster receive the proper care.