Philips, Nordic Healthcare Group and Meditsiinigrupp will support Stroke Patient Pathway Pilot in Estonia

Philips, Nordic Healthcare Group (NHG) and local partner Meditsiinigrupp will support public payer Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) in a two-year Stroke Patient Pathway Pilot Project by providing IT solution for measuring the outcomes and costs of ischemic stroke care.  

"The goal of the Stroke Patient Pathway Pilot is to improve patients' quality of life through developing more integrated care pathway from the patient's view. The Pilot contains of three major parts - various development projects that four hospitals are leading, for the first time we are starting to measure patient reported outcomes, and testing a new, bundled payment model for the whole stroke care pathway. Knowing from other countries experience that it is important to have an IT-system for that kind of pilot, we are happy that we have such competent companies as our partners," commented Maivi Parv, Member of EHIF Management Board.

About 3200 people suffer from ischemic stroke each year in Estonia. The mortality of patients within one month after the stroke is approximately 20%, while 45% of the stroke patients who survive will continue their lives with a functional disability of some degree. Due to high disease burden and its fragmented and complicated care pathway, ischemic stroke was chosen as the focus for the first patient pathway pilot project. Measuring and benchmarking of outcomes including patient's quality of life, and costs in this pilot project is a vital part of this stroke pilot project.

This pilot project involves 4 out of 6 hospitals in Estonia providing acute stroke care, and thus, it will be possible to benchmark hospitals through different perspectives: patient-reported outcome measures, clinical outcome measures and costs. Benchmarking enables to detect and learn from best practices. If the process is successful, the measuring can be extended in Estonia to further hospitals and conditions.

In the pilot project the patient health outcomes data will be collected and analysed with patient-reported outcomes measurement software from Philips through standardized and validated questionnaires. Financial information will be provided by the EHIF. NHG, which in 2019 became ICHOM’s (International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement) certified implementation partner in Europe will combine this information into a visual dashboard, creating a correlation between the cost and outcomes data. Through the dashboard, professionals can compare the outcomes and the costs between the separate hospitals, as well as the clinicians. Hospitals also gain knowledge for their stroke patient pathway improvements. Standardising the outcomes in regard to the patients’ baseline situation enables comparable indicators, such as the patients’ ability to function, the success of returning to employment, and the flow of the care process.

In addition to outcome measuring and benchmarking, Estonia is testing a new payment model, that is one fixed price for stroke patient's whole care pathway for 365 days. There are 7 fixed prices dependent of the treatment group and age, as these characteristics are the main cost drivers.  In the payment model, the main service provider bears the financial risk for a patient’s entire care pathway during the first year. This model gives the service provider the motivation to plan the care pathway more holistically to avoid complications and gives more freedom to comply with the patient’s needs. If the pilot is successful, the payment received by the service provider is possible to be linked to the outcomes of the treatment.

“Digital technologies are rapidly changing the way stroke care is organized towards an outcome based model. Philips is proud to partner with Estonian Health Insurance Fund to deliver on the Quadruple Aim for this high risk population leveraging data management solutions,” said Reinier Schlatmann, CEO at Philips in Central and Eastern Europe.

”We are excited about this opportunity to execute a value-based healthcare (VBHC) project on a payer level. Further, this is a great start for our international cooperation with ICHOM. Estonia is already a frontrunner in the use of digital solutions and, therefore, they have very good conditions to build a VBHC system,” commented Vesa Komssi, NHG’s Executive Vice President.

  • Tiina Sats, the Head of Specialized Healthcare Department, +372 55654015, tiina.sats [at] haigekassa.ee
  • Vesa Komssi, Executive Vice President, NHG, +358 50 331 7978, vesa.komssi [at] nhg.fi
  • Kamila Koźbiał, Communications Manager at Philips, +48 665 553 569; kamila.kozbial [at] philips.com (kamila[dot]kozbial[at]philips[dot]com)
  • Laura Silm, Quality and Sales Manager, Meditsiinigrupp: +372 5129964 / laura.silm [at] meditsiinigrupp.ee (laura[dot]silm[at]meditsiinigrupp[dot]ee)

Estonian Health Insurance Fund covers the costs of health services required by the person in case of illness. Our mission is to cover the costs of 1,2 million people for their health services, to help prevent and cure disease, finance the purchasing of medicinal products and medicinal technical aids, and provide the benefits for temporary incapacity for work and other benefits. https://www.haigekassa.ee/en

Nordic Healthcare Group (NHG) is a Finnish based company founded in 2004, expanding in the Nordics and internationally. NHG is specialising in supporting quality services for social and healthcare. Our clients include hospital districts, municipalities, private service providers, pharmaceutical companies, private equity investors and healthcare technology companies. We employ more than 120 experienced professionals. https://nhg.fi/en/

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. Philips offers a software to measure outcomes with hundreds of validated questionnaires, including ICHOM standard sets. Nordic Healthcare Group is Philips’ partner. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter

Meditsiinigrupp AS imports, sells and maintains various medical equipment from a variety of recognized manufacturers. We have over 20 years of experience in the field of medical technology, and our clients are all major health care institutions in Estonia. https://www.meditsiinigrupp.ee/en/home/

International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) is an international non-profit organisation developing global standards for measuring outcomes in healthcare. One of ICHOM’s founders is professor Michael E. Porter. www.ichom.org ICHOM Standard Sets are standardised outcomes, measurement tools, metrics and risk adjustment factors for a given condition. Developed by a consortium of experts and patient representatives in the field, these Standard Sets focus on what matters most to the patient. To date, ICHOM has published 28 Standard Sets covering different conditions and for specific patient populations: these Standard Sets cover over 50% of the world’s disease burden. https://www.ichom.org/standard-sets/