We need a “money follows patient” principle in healthcare, because no one cares about the patient under the existing system, said Board Chairman of Riga Eastern Clinical University Hospital (RAKUS) Normunds Staņēvičs at the conference “The Future Health Economy: Efficiency and Longevity” organised by the Social and Employment Matters Committee and Riga Stradins University on Friday, the 1st of November.
Staņēvičs stressed that the most important priorities to improve healthcare at the moment include the review of the financing model for hospitals and improvement of the information system used by hospitals.
According to the head of RAKUS, the current system of service charging and quota financing model “very often does not reflect either the amount and outcome of the work performed or the patient’s results”.
Staņēvičs also said that in eight months of 2024, RAKUS received 20% more calls for medical aid than last year.
He stressed that the main hospital centers – clinical university hospitals – should guide both future clinical pathways and financial flows to ensure a patient-centered outcome. He stressed that when developing the hospital network, university hospitals should perform appropriate profile adjustments, after which the patient can be redirected to other hospitals for further rehabilitation and treatment.
“In the pilot project with Sigulda Hospital, we are already directing patients to post-acute rehabilitation so that RAKUS can accommodate patients, providing more specific, urgent treatment,” he said.
Additionally, RAKUS plans to implement a new project next year – “Home hospital”, which should allow patients to undergo treatment at home. This is expected to make life easier for hospitals.
Staņēvičs emphasised that the aforementioned proposals will facilitate the settings imposed by the civil service in order to achieve the goal of ensuring the well-being of the patient and full return to society.