Kronikgune and Osakidetza, the Basque Health Service, have offered their experience in the use of this methodology in the Basque Country.  

The collaborative methodology, based on continual improvement cycles (PDSA– Plan, Do, Study, Act), is an increasingly popular procedure in healthcare systems. This method guides multidisciplinary teams in the detection of areas of improvement of projects and care models, exchange of experiences and ideas for solutions, and implementation of changes. It also promotes lifelong learning amongst team members, and the transferability of programmes to other regions.

The ACT@Scale projects aims to scale up good practices in Integrated Care and Telemonitoring. Its goal is to reduce mortality and improve the quality of life of those affected by chronic diseases, frailty or mental illnesses. The consortium is made up of 13 partners, including Kronikgune and Osakidetza, and from the outset it has been implementing a collaborative methodology to detect, analyse and implement areas of improvement in various European programmes.

The catalogue published by the consortium presents the experience of the project’s five pilot regions that have used the collaborative methodology. The experiences were presented in October 2017 at an event organised by ACT@Scale as part of the Week of Health and Innovation (WHINN) in Odense, Denmark. The regions of Catalonia, Groningen, Scotland, Southern Denmark and the Basque Country are now sharing the lessons they have learnt and their recommendations after using the continual improvement cycles for their programme scale-up.

The Basque Country presents the analysis of two corporate programmes: the telemonitoring service for patients with heart failure and the integrated care route for multimorbid patients. The work was carried out by multidisciplinary teams made up of health managers and professionals from all the Integrated Healthcare Organisations (IHOs), the Health Council and Osakidetza Central Services. Both programmes are expected to be scaled up progressively to all the organisations of Osakidetza.

If you would like to discover the work and experience of the Basque Country and of the other regions of ACT@Scale in the use of this tool, you can download the catalogue by clicking on the following link: ACT@Scale catalogue with experience of regions in Good Practices scale-up