1 billion Danish kroner to be spent on e-consultations

We love online consultations, but we still show up in the waiting room

The Danes are crazy about the Internet. So much, in fact, that we now have more than 1.3 million e-consultations p.a. That is almost half a million more than last year.

On a yearly basis, expenses for the now 1.3 million e-consultations are reimbursed, but it is still not known whether it has reduced the number of telephone consultations, just as we do not know how many Danes that also chose a personal consultation. So far, the total number of consultations is on the rise, and that is not about to stop.

Hit the financial brake

Where other studies have pointed to the need of coaching citizens, the main conclusion of a CBS study is that we need to hit the financial brake and establish unambiguous guidelines for how far the public health care system is to go in order to meet what appears to be an insatiable demand. At the same time, there is a need to adjust the citizens’ expectations to which services public health care offers.

Health care expenditure to increase by DKK 1 billion

If you imagine that online consultations result in a saving of just two minutes per real-life consultation due to increased patient knowledge and more effective work flows, millions of kroner could be saved.

The saving is not only interesting as means of reducing health care expenditure but may also be a solution to the shortage of doctors. That does not appear to be the case, however.

Calculations made by CBS show that if the online channel growth continues at its current rate, health care expenditure for online consultations will have increased by approx DKK 1 billion in 2012.

Book: Sundhedssektorens digitalisering: Ledelse og effektmåling (Digitalisation of Health Care: Management and Effect Measurement)

The study is part of the book ”Sundhedssektorens digitalisering: Ledelse og effektmåling”, which has just been published by Aalborg University Press.

The study was conducted by CBS Professor Kim Normann Andersen from Center for Applied ICT, among others. He is the manager of the subject area Management and Effect Measurement at the HealthcareIT Network, SundhedsITnet.