CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
MASTER CLASS HEALTHCARE NETWORK
Paramedic consultant Nic van Paassen:
“In the Masterclass, you gain a huge baggage of knowledge and skills.”
How do we keep healthcare affordable and accessible. In the interest of the patient as well as you as a health care provider? Paramedic consultant Nic van Paassen is convinced that network care is one of the solutions. So he recently attended the 2-day training master class in Network Care. “Very inspiring!”
Nic has been a physical therapist for 40 years. He also held board positions in his profession. This is how he came into contact with Care Organization Eerstelijn, a nonprofit consulting and support agency for primary care in Nieuwe Waterweg Noord (NWN) and Delfland, Westland and Oostland (DWO). He has been employed there since early 2020 and advises the board on primary care health issues.
Hot item
The urgency to change healthcare is great, Nic also sees. “We need to be more efficient with the same resources. Network care is therefore a hot topic. Because it’s not sensible for a general practitioner, for example, to perform a treatment himself, while another healthcare provider with other competencies specializes in it. But then you have to be in each other’s network. You have to know each other’s competencies and you have to trust each other. That’s where it starts.”
Working more closely together
Of course, there are already networks. “But what you want is for health care providers in a network to work more closely together around a client so that treatment is integrated. Because that’s better for the client. Even better is when care is paid from one pot, so that efficient care is encouraged and rewarded. The latter is the biggest challenge, given the partitions in funding.”
Nic knows what he’s talking about. “When I was just employed, corona broke out. We then organized a post-covid network in which paramedics started working together to treat patients with multi-problems. A dietician, speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, psychologist and spiritual caregiver. We put them in contact so they learned about each other’s competencies and discovered what they could do for each other. We followed the patients and conducted interviews. They indicated that this is really different health care. They liked that the care is aligned and flows into each other. Because as a result, they don’t go through a different route with a health care provider each time.”
Rainbow Model
Nic attended the Network Care master class because he wanted to know more or organizing a successful care network. “Because it’s pretty complicated to set that up,” Nic knows. So he wanted handles. In the master class, trainees learn the basics of value-driven care and how to shape collaboration in a healthcare network. Step by step, they make a business case for a successful network. They do so using the Regen model of integrated care. This model summarizes all domains of value-driven care as well as the hard and soft preconditions.
Funding model
“The Rainbow Model gives a lot of clarity on what you are doing,” Nic said. “It makes it clear that you have to take it step by step and not skip a step. And it gives structure to your thinking. At some point you get to a decision tree that helps you make a decision for an end solution and a funding model for a healthcare network. This prevents you from choosing a funding model that others in the network cannot support. You then make the costing model transparent so that no one has any surprises.”
Shared values
A successful healthcare network is based on shared values and goals. There is a lot of attention to this in the master class as well. “We discussed a lot about everyone’s starting points. Those can conflict. You can think: I have to keep my practice afloat, so I provide all the care myself. But that can make you lose sight of the patient’s values. Do you want to change healthcare? By formulating the values together, you also avoid thinking too quickly in terms of solutions. Values might include: the patient always remains the owner of his own problem. Another value could be that you as a healthcare provider must always want to add something and contribute positively.”
If you take the patient journey as your starting point, you assume different values and arrive at different solutions, Nic argues. “Then as a general practitioner you will more quickly choose to call in a dietician, for example. As an orthopedist, you may decide that a patient with back pain is better off with a physical therapist. Or you may decide to still organize everything yourself in your own practice.”
Very inspiring
Nic looks back on a successful master class. “I am very excited. The atmosphere was relaxed. Yet we worked really hard. Essenburgh has an enormous baggage of knowledge and helps you pieces along. After the master class, we still had some questions. That’s why we had another online session with Essenburgh. Even now we can still contact the institute with questions. The Rainbow Model is concretely applicable and adaptable to your own situation. It always fits. I have added a new chapter to my skills. Very inspiring!”
