One of the major challenges we face as a society is the rising cost of healthcare systems. In a well-functioning ecosystem, the creation of value for patients and citizens should be the main objective of all actors involved. Although the EU usually has a very economic approach towards value-driven health ecosystems, it is now crucial to have a long-term strategy for moving from low-value based to high-value based healthcare systems. To make an ecosystem value-based for all stakeholders, the right coordination is needed. The nursing profession, as end-user and co-designer, believes that value-based health care is a promising concept (cf. EFN Position Statement on EU recommendations on defining value in value-based healthcare & EFN Position Paper on Value-Based Health and Social Ecosystem), but in order to have impact at the health system level, it must be applied to the key decision-processes that make up care delivery.
Discussing on ‘Value-Based Healthcare – What does it mean in different global markets?’, the Healthcare World Series Forum raised the need for the value-based healthcare to be a new method for understanding how to deliver high quality healthcare. In this process, data is seen has one of the key drivers, and technology (as Artificial Intelligence) could help on this by for example, getting data in a more efficient way, taking into account the users’ experiences. The involvement of patients, and frontline healthcare professionals, as the nurses, is essential to understand which priorities have to be improved in the healthcare sector. It is challenging, but essential to define what measures are needed to reach better outcomes.
From the nurses’ perspective, the health and social care ecosystems in the EU need more efficient spending, a cut of unnecessary bureaucracy and an orientation on outcomes, safeguarding quality and safety. This will lead to a value-based health and social care system in which data, statistics and technological developments support the work of nurses instead of being a burden on their workload.
Nurses can make a significant contribution to boost value-based ecosystems, supported by innovative solutions, and being part of a culture that empowers patients to evaluate qualitative health outcomes.