High-tech clinic encourages patients to treat themselves
Self-care services and electronic appointment reservations to be spread throughout Finland in coming years
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By Marjo Valtavaara
The high-tech public health clinic gleams with its newness in the Kaakkuri district of Oulu. Members of staff are not hoping for a surge of patients. The emptier the parking area and the waiting room, the better the new type of clinic will be seen to work.
The idea of the national pilot project is for patients to treat themselves as far as possible. Those needing the services of the clinic can access those services on-line more easily than before.
However, there are people to be seen in the lobby: not everybody is staying at home. Pirjo Aalto is waiting to see a doctor, along with her baby Elle.
"It took me 45 minutes to get through on the telephone this morning. It seems to be rather busy."
The backlogs should ease up when local residents learn to make better use of the self-treatment service. In just over a week, the on-line service has attracted more than 200 registered patients to open their own health file.
"The first thing to be reduced is telephone traffic, when appointments can be booked electronically. Then visits will be reduced. Patients with chronic diseases are learning to monitor their health themselves with the help of the Internet, and do not need as many unnecessary control visits. At the same time, those suffering from an ordinary flu can get help through the online service", says Keijo Koski, head of the Oulu municipal health service.
Efforts are underway to expedite the establishment of electronic health care services nationwide. In addition to the Kaakkuri pilot clinic, Internet services can be found in occupational health and student health care clinics around Finland.
In Mikkeli, the Hyvis portal is available to all customers of the South Savo health care district, which offers services ranging from information on health issues to the possibility of communicating with a professional. In Vantaa, appointments can be cancelled by SMS message or on the Internet.
The process does not always go in the desired direction. For instance, in Espoo, the Kilo health centre was to have started a service like that in Oulu, but negotiations on the implementation of the project are still going on.
An optimistic goal has been set for the implementation of a nationwide electronic patient archive for the Social Insurance Institution (KELA), which should be ready by 2011.
"Only after that can a change begin on the citizens' level aimed at getting as many Finns as possible to deal electronically with issues related to their health. The final service model is currently under consideration. We are picking the best aspects of the present experiments", says Anne Niska, head of the Oulu self-care project.
Bank customers were rapidly moved onto the Internet. Those who are hoping to render the health care system electronic have one worry - that people's habits will not change.
Experts can see one large impediment: not everyone is able, or willing to use new technology. However, this obstacle is expected to go away with the change of generations.
Project chief Jari Ohtonen at the Kaakkuri centre shows the self-care room. He walks past the foyer which later will contain equipment for biometric identification.
"In the self-care room the customer can take his blood pressure or weigh himself and feed the information into his own electronic health file", Ohtonen says.
Pirjo Aalto likes what she hears. She expects to register with the service soon. "I am most interested in booking time. As a mother of three children, I end up making many phone calls."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.2.2008
MARJO VALTAVAARA / Helsingin Sanomat
marjo.valtavaara@hs.fi
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| 19.2.2008 - THIS WEEK |
 High-tech clinic encourages patients to treat themselves |
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