Anne-Margreet Strijbis, policy advisor and project manager at Harteraad:

“Masterclass provides insight and structure”

“Harteraad is working with the Dutch Heart Foundation on the ‘Heart failure compliance’ programme. The aim is to make it easier for people with heart failure to maintain their therapy. Part of the programme is the development of a model patient care path. An overview that makes clear what the average care looks like and what they themselves can do to get the care they need. To make this care path, I wanted to understand the total picture and connect to modern visions on care. That’s why I took the Care Networks masterclass.”

Thus Anne-Margreet Strijbis. She works as a policy advisor and project manager at Harteraad. This is the expertise centre for living with cardiovascular disease. The organization supports patients and their loved ones practically, socially and emotionally. Harteraad also defends their interests, nationally and regionally.

The patient in the middle

“In many models of care, the path runs from A to B. The practice is different. If you have heart failure, sometimes you get better and sometimes you get worse. Sometimes you have to go back to the hospital. So for this patient path, the term network care fits better than chain care. This corresponds with the Rainbow Model. The patient is in the middle with the care and service providers around him.”

“In the masterclass we started with the question: what are the needs of the patient? For this we took an imaginary patient with heart failure and multiple problems as an example. Based on the patient’s needs, what outcomes do you want to achieve? For example: fewer readmissions to hospital. This will also make your organisation clearer in its cooperation with others. You know what the patient wants and what you want to achieve. That provides structure.”

Is cooperation useful or not?

“Another eye-opener was that in a collaboration you have to carefully examine whether the collaboration is in line with our organizational goals. Will the collaboration achieve anything? What agreements do we make? And do we share risks together, in terms of money, time and effort? Too often the collaboration is vague, with the result that it comes to nothing or takes longer than necessary.”

Business cases

Now the challenge is to put what we have learned into practice and embed it into the organisation. “I explained the content of the masterclass to my fellow policy advisors. Together we discussed what we can do with it within Harteraad. In any case, it helps us to determine which partnerships we can and cannot enter into. Moreover, I want to get to work on business cases for certain projects.”

Are you curious about the Masterclass Care Network of Essenburgh Training & Organization? Download the brochure below and find out all about the training or View all our Better Care training courses here.

In this e-book you will read what a care network is and we will map the barriers and solution direction for the practice. Based on the Rainbow Model and (inter)national best practices.