«Quality in health care»

Welcome to Trondheim 12.-13.November 2015
and to
Sør-Trøndelag University College, Faculty of Nursing

Nordic countries, as well as other countries are seeing the light at the end of the economic crisis. However, the problems in the healthcare sector are still comprehensive. We are still demanding more and better healthcare to be delivered faster at less cost. Lean and New Public Management are two much used approaches to increase productivity and meet new health care targets. Health care is complex and improvements targeting one issue often have negative impact other aspects of the system.

Innovations are needed for more cost-effective services. Large organizational reforms have been implemented in most Nordic countries in order to increase efficiency and quality of care. However, lack of resources and poor employee well-being are also part of the story. Often, efficiency, quality of care and work environment is developed separately although we have increasing scientific evidence supporting their interrelationship.
High level of organizational social capital (thrust, collaboration and justice) seems to be a significant prerequisite in the process towards development of more sustainable health care systems considering all 3 “corners” of the NOVO triangle.

Several international studies show that the Nordic countries are top rated in terms of organizational social capital. On this basis we presume that the Nordic countries offer an excellent “experimental site” for development of “a Nordic Model for sustainable systems in the health care sector”. The NOVO network and our yearly Symposia aim to offer a researcher venue for discussions along this line.