Collaborative improvements; effects on simple, complicated and complex problems in neonatal care

Paper in proceeding, 2012

The position of the patient in healthcare have changed; from not being involved at all; towards being listened to and be involved in healthcare development. The purpose of this paper was to identify and describe the types of improvement areas generated when patients, relatives and healthcare professionals shared their experiences as they collaborated on improvement work for the design of a patient process. The identified improvement areas were classified as simple, complicated or complex. An action research approach with interviews, observations and collaborative reflections was used for the research process of this study in the neonatal process at a Swedish hospital. The conclusion of this paper is that problems in healthcare captured in collaboration between patients and healthcare professionals were mostly classified as simple, but there were also examples of complicated and complex problem areas. Healthcare staff and patients experience different kind of problems, and a collaborative approach is needed to capture all areas for improvement in a patient process.