Focusing on the patient’s view
Oct. 2021Interprofessionality and coordinated care
At first hand. The central focus of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is the way patients see things. What are their needs? What treatment outcome does the individual want to achieve? To what extent do they want and are they able to be involved in taking decisions?
A rethink is required if people are to be provided with optimum, comprehensive care. The central issues are the following: what does a person need at this moment in time, and what can the various healthcare professionals with their specific skills contribute?
I believe that the aim of IPC must be to determine a treatment pathway and a treatment goal in conjunction with the patient, and then to analyse which professional can best cover which aspect. The emphasis must not be on professional considerations. Rather, the knowledge and abilities of the professionals involved should determine who takes which decisions and performs which tasks. We need to think not in terms of professions but in a patient-centred manner. With people who have multiple, perhaps chronic diseases, in particular, it’s important not to treat them disease by disease but to maintain a focus on the individual as a whole. It’s important for each professional to contribute their view on an equal footing, to accept responsibility and in this way to play a shared part in achieving a successful treatment outcome.
I hope that in future the many building blocks that the FOPH has developed over a four-year period as part of the “Interprofessionality in healthcare 2017–2020” support programme will be deployed by the different stakeholders and implemented in everyday practice. The subject of IPC will remain important – not only for the healthcare system in Switzerland but also for the FOPH in the context of the Strategy 2030, for example. We see two main aims of this strategy, which has been approved by the Federal Council: one is the aim of “ensuring care and funding”, the other of “improving the quality of care”. I am convinced that the knowledge and experience generated by this support programme can help us to achieve these objectives.
Bernadette Häfliger Berger, Head Healthcare Professions Division
