Browsing by Subject "perusterveydenhuolto"

Hammaspäivystyksen kysyntä on vuosien saatossa kasvanut samalla kun hoitoonpääsy kiireettömään hoitoon on heikentynyt. Päivystystä ei tulisi käyttää kiireettömän hoidon saatavuusongelman korjaamiseen, ja vaikka päivystyksen valtakunnalliset kriteerit on määritelty valtioneuvoston asetuksessa, päivystykseen kuitenkin tullaan vaihtelevista syistä, ja erityisesti jatkuvat uusintakäynnit rasittavat päivystystä. Yleisin tulosyy on hammasytimen sairaudet ja toiseksi yleisin karies. Helsingin seudulla mikään demografinen tekijä ei korostu voimakkaasti päivystyskäynneissä, mutta naisilla on hieman enemmän useita päivystyskäyntejä. Yöpäivystyksessä korostuvat nuoret miehet. Myös lapset korostuvat päivystyskäynneillä väestön ikärakenteeseen suhteutettuna. Lapsilla on hieman enemmän tapaturmia kuin aikuisilla.

Tavoitteet: Kun terveyspalvelujen tarjonta ei vastaa kysyntää ja tarvetta, seuraa vaikeuksia hoitoon pääsyssä. Suomessa perusterveydenhuollon hoitoon pääsystä säädetään terveydenhuoltolaissa, jossa hoitoon pääsylle on asetettu tietyt määräajat (hoitotakuu). Perusterveydenhuollon lääkinnälliseen kuntoutukseen ja siten puheterapiaan tulisi päästä viimeistään kolmen kuukauden kuluessa hoidon tarpeen arvioinnista. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena oli selvittää hoitoon pääsyä perusterveydenhuollon puheterapiassa. Tarkemmin tarkoituksena oli selvittää puheterapeuttien väestövastuuta (yhden kokoaikaisesti työskentelevän puhetrapeutin vastuulla oleva väestömäärä), hoitotakuun mittaamista ja toteutumista, odotusaikoja sekä priorisointia. Puheterapian hoitotakuuta, odotusaikoja ja priorisointia ei ole Suomessa tiettävästi aiemmin tutkittu. Menetelmät: Pro gradu -tutkielma toteutettiin kyselytutkimuksena kunnissa työskenteleville puheterapeuteille ja muille ammattilaisille, jotka parhaiten tunsivat alueen puheterapiatilanteen. Tutkimuksen perusjoukkona oli Manner-Suomen 133 kuntaa ja yhteistoiminta-aluetta, joista pyrittiin saamaan maantieteellisesti mahdollisimman edustava otos. Otos muodostui 47 alueesta, joihin kysely lähetettiin. E-lomakkeelle tehty kyselylomake koostui 52 osiosta sisältäen sekä suljettuja että avoimia osioita. Aineiston tilastollinen kuvaus ja analyysi suoritettiin IBM SPSS Statistics -ohjelmalla. Avoimiin osioihin tulleet vastaukset luokiteltiin sisällön mukaan. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset: Vastauksia saatiin 34 alueelta, ja vastaajia oli yhteensä 40. Tulosten mukaan alueiden väestövastuiden keskiarvo oli 13 232 (md 10 712, kh 9 030, min.–maks. 6 801–49 701). Hoitotakuun osalta hoitotakuun mittaamisessa havaittiin vaihtelua niin alueiden sisällä kuin alueiden välillä. Yleisimmin terveydenhuoltolaissa mainittu hoidon tarpeen arviointi katsottiin tehdyksi, kun puheterapeutti oli käsitellyt asiakkaan lähetetietoja tai yhteydenottoa (43 %). Laissa mainitun hoidon taas katsottiin yleisimmin alkaneen, kun puheterapeutti oli tavannut asiakkaan ja aloittanut arvioinnin tekemisen (76 %). Hoitotakuun arvioitiin toteutuneen aina 20 %:ssa alueita, 44 %:ssa useimmiten, 12 %:ssa noin puolessa tapauksista ja harvoin 24 %:ssa alueita. Arvioiduissa keskimääräisissä odotusajoissa ensikäynnille oli alueittain vaihtelua alle kuukaudesta yli puoleen vuoteen. Merkittävää vaihtelua oli myös arvioiduissa keskimääräisissä odotusajoissa puheterapeutin ensikäynneistä kuntoutuksen alkamiseen, ja yli kolmen kuukauden odotusaika ensikäynneistä kuntoutukseen oli 38 %:ssa alueita. Priorisointia koskevissa tuloksissa tuli ilmi eritoten kouluikäisten jääminen alemman prioriteetin ryhmiin. Heidän kerrottiin usealla alueella saaneen puheterapiaa vain poikkeustapauksissa. Lisäksi tuloksissa tuli esille resurssien riittämättömyyden ilmeneminen lyhentyvinä kuntoutusjaksoina ja kuntoutustyöhön jäävän ajan vähenemisenä. Vastausten määrä eri tuloksissa vaihteli riippuen käytettävissä olevien vastausten määrästä kussakin tulososiossa. Kaiken kaikkiaan tämän tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella perusterveydenhuollon puheterapiaan pääsyssä on merkittävää vaihtelua ja siten alueellista eriarvoisuutta. Puheterapiaresurssit perusterveydenhuollossa näyttäytyvät tarpeeseen nähden riittämättöminä, ja hoitoon pääsy jää monella alueella toteutumatta lain edellyttämällä tavalla.

Objectives. Interprofessional collaboration has become increasingly important in health and social care. Collaboration with professionals in other fields is also part of the work of many speech therapists and the method has been found to benefit the work in many ways. The number of studies on interprofessional collaboration is also increasing, although the perspective of speech therapists is rarely considered. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences speech and language therapists and their team members of other professions have on interprofessional collaboration. The participants were primary health care employees working in two municipalities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The interviewees were also asked about their views on the benefits and challenges of cooperation. In addition, it was investigated what skills the study period provided for the interviewees’ interprofessional work, as well as what qualities close cooperation requires from the employee. Methods. The study was conducted in February and March 2020 in two separate group interviews involving a total of six speech therapists, three psychologists, three occupational therapists and one nurse. The interviews were videotaped and transcribed into text files. The data was analysed by means of inductive content analysis, and the results were reviewed in the light of previous research and literature. Results and conclusions. The work of the speech therapists interviewed involved a variety of multidisciplinary practices, and the speech therapists collaborated with professionals in many other fields. The closest co-operation was in the employees' own offices, where professionals from different fields, among other things, consulted each other and met customers together. Interprofessional collaboration was thought to benefit the work in many ways, while the disadvantages were perceived to be minor. Interviewees felt that little attention was paid to interprofessional cooperation during their studies. Many felt that it would have been useful to get to know the job descriptions of future partners in particular during their studies. Based on the results of this study, speech therapists in primary health care seem to appreciate the opportunity for interprofessional collaboration. Cooperation seems to benefit their work as well as reduce work-related stress. For example, challenges in schedules, information flow, and workplace space solutions seem to make it difficult for workers to collaborate. Studies in speech therapy appear to provide rather limited skills for multidisciplinary work on the basis of this study. As cooperation with workers in other fields is usually part of the job description of speech therapists, the inclusion of multidisciplinarity more closely as part of speech therapy studies would be justified.

Obesity is a growing health challenge in Finland. Despite the fact, that obesity is recognized as a chronic disease, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. In the past few years, two new anti-obesity drugs have entered the market to support the lifestyle changes Anti-obesity medication would be a natural option to support lifestyle changes, but physicians have not widely adopted the medication in their treatment patterns. The aim of this study was to understand, what are the abilities of primary care physician (PCP) to treat obesity, considering their knowledge, resources and, local care pathways. In addition, the study sought to determine the most important factors, that are involved in the initiation of anti-obesity medication. The study was conducted as a semi-structured thematic interview. A total of nine PCPs from all over Finland were interviewed for the study. Of these, three worked on the private sector and six on the public sector. The interviews were conducted during October-November 2020. The framework of the interviews was built based on the previous studies and information within a pharmaceutical company specializing in the treatment of obesity. The content was analysed with inductive content analysis. PCPs interested in the treatment of obesity raised the topic of weight quite easily in various situations and some of them mentioned that they even find it easy to bring up the subject. However, the subject is mainly brought up when the patient already has some weight-related comorbidities. Preventively, weight is less often talked about, especially because of a lack of human and time resources. Currently the most comprehensive care pathways and interdisciplinary teams are in occupational healthcare. In occupational healthcare, resources are perceived as adequate and the interdisciplinary teams works well. In most healthcare centers, a separate care pathway for the treatment of obesity had not been built. In general, knowledge of the obesity treatment was considered adequate, but education on the biological basis of obesity is needed. Most of the PCPs knew about the new anti-obesity drugs and had positive attitude towards them, but they did not prescribe the drugs themselves. The most significant barrier to prescribe the anti-obesity drugs, was the price of the products and the lack of reimbursement. In addition, experience with anti-obesity drugs is limited and the need for education is high. Currently, occupational health physicians have better abilities to treat obesity in terms of care pathways, interdisciplinary teams and, resources than PCPs in public healthcare. The conditions are also better for the implementation of pharmacotherapy as resources and care pathways enables proper lifestyle guidance alongside pharmacotherapy. Prior to reimbursement, pharmacotherapy may not be a realistic option in the public sector, and the conditions for proper lifestyle guidance alongside pharmacotherapy are not sufficient in all locations.

Medication safety is safety related to the use of medicines. Medication errors are drug treatment related events which can lead to medication safety incidents. Medication process is multi-professional teamwork which contains a risk of medication error on every step. It is important to identify potential safety risks in order to prevent the risk events. Medication errors can occur for example during the transfer of the prescription information in to the medication list. It is important that medication lists are accurate and up to date so that patient's medication therapy is optimal. The aim of this study was to assess whether the primary health care medication lists are up to date, accurate and easy to read. The aim was also to identify what kind of information in medication lists was open to interpretation. In one of the municipalities, the medication lists at home were compared to the medication lists at primary care to see whether both lists had identical information on the medication. The data of this study consisted of 240 medication lists from primary care units in three Finnish municipalities. The lists contained altogether 3062 medications. Most of the lists were printed from the patient information systems. Some of the lists were copied from the home medication lists. All medication lists were systematically reviewed and issues open to interpretation were documented in a structured Microsoft Excel table. The data were transferred to SPSS 20 Program for statistical analysis. Most (73%, n=174) of the medication lists (n=240) were incomplete. One-fifth (n=612) of the medications in use (n=3062) contained missing information on medicines. The total number of discrepancies was 807 (mean 3.4 discrepancies per medication list). The most common discrepancies were related to the time of administration (n=277) and dosages (n=241). Duplicate medications included a lot of confusing information. Discontinued medications were not always clearly marked. In only one of the municipalities the medication lists had a space for marking the indication. There were some differences between home medication lists (n=62) and primary care medication lists. ™ Based on this study medication lists have a lot of discrepancies and ambiguities in their information content. The medication lists do not always accurately tell the patient's current medication. Interpretation of inaccurate medication lists consumes unnecessarily doctors' and nursing staff's time. Inaccurate medication lists are a risk to patient safety. It is also important that the medication lists would be similar in all health care units. Electronic prescriptions, the National Health Archive and medication list developed by Information Management Service of Healthcare are expected to solve at least some of the problems related to medication lists.

Aims and objectives. Feeding difficulties are complex and multifactorial disorders that cause multiple challenges for children and their families. Previous studies have focused on parents’ experiences and treatment in specialised healthcare, but speech and language pathologists’ perspectives in the primary healthcare have not been studied. The incidence of feeding difficulties is expected to increase and the number of children with feeding difficulties is likely to increase in primary healthcare. The intervention requires multidisciplinary collaboration. However, clinicians across disciplines lack common working practices. The objective of this study was to increase the knowledge about feeding difficulties that speech and language pathologists encounter in primary healthcare. The aim was also to describe speech and language pathologists’ experiences and perspectives on multidisciplinary work and their readiness to work with the children. In addition, the assessment and intervention methods they use were studied. Therefore, it would be possible to pay more attention to the experiences of speech and language pathologists and to create more functional working practices based on these experiences. Method. The method in this qualitative study was a semi-structured interview. Seven speech and language pathologists working in primary healthcare were interviewed for the study, and they all had worked children with feeding difficulties in the past year. Speech and language pathologists’ work experience in primary healthcare varied from 1 to 25 years. Themes for the interview were formed based on the previous research. The interviews were carried out in November and December 2018. The interviews were recorded and transcribed into Word-files, and the data were analysed using content analysis. The data were divided into thematic groups and the results were examined in the light of earlier studies and literature. Results and conclusions. Based on this study, speech and language pathologists’ work with children with feeding difficulties is diverse in primary healthcare. Work requires the ability to detect several different areas and special features compared to many other disorders. When talking about assessment and intervention during the interviews, speech and language pathologists did point out various challenges. Complexity of feeding disorders, working with multilingual and multicultural families, speech and language pathologists’ insecurity and lack of common working practices hinder the work. The most important factors developing their readiness were work experience, multidisciplinary collaboration, collegial support and additional education. The findings of this study indicate that the speech and language pathologist working in primary healthcare play a major role in the treatment of children with feeding difficulties but the division of disciplines should be clearer. This study suggests that multidisciplinary collaboration has a positive effect on supporting the family and work readiness of speech and language pathologists. Feeding difficulties can be positively affected in primary healthcare and family welfare can also be supported. Due to the responsibility of speech and language pathologists’ work, active learning and maintaining professional skills with the help of clinical and theoretical knowledge are required.

Pitkäaikaiset lääkitykset lisääntyvät jatkuvasti kroonisten sairauksien yleistymisen ja väestön ikääntymisen takia. Pitkäaikaisten sairauksien hoidossa lääkehoitojen rationaalisuus korostuu, mutta WHO:n arvioiden mukaan noin puolet lääkkeiden määräämisestä, toimittamisesta, käytöstä ja myynnistä toteutuu epärationaalisesti. Tämä lisää terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten vastuuta lääkehoidon vaikutusten seurannassa ja potilaan hoitoon sitouttamisessa myös reseptien uudistamisessa. Reseptien uudistamiskäytäntöjä on kuitenkin tutkittu vähän niin Suomessa kuin maailmanlaajuisesti. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tavoitteena oli tarkastella nykyisiä reseptien uudistamiskäytäntöjä perusterveydenhuollon lääkäreiden näkökulmasta. Tavoitteena oli tarkastella, minkälaiset tekijät vaikuttavat lääkäreiden työskentelyyn sekä potilaan lääkehoidon kokonaisuuden hallintaan ja turvallisuuteen reseptien uudistamistilanteissa. Lisäksi kartoitettiin lääkäreiden ratkaisuehdotuksia uudistamiskäytäntöjen kehittämiseksi. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena monimenetelmätutkimuksena Kirkkonummen terveysasemilla. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnettiin triangulaatiota ja tutkimusaineisto koostui reseptien uudistamistilanteiden varjostuksesta sekä kahdesta lääkäreiden ryhmähaastattelusta. Tutkimukseen osallistui yhteensä 12 lääkäriä, joista viisi osallistui varjostusvaiheeseen ja seitsemän haastatteluvaiheeseen. Aineisto kerättiin huhti-heinäkuun 2019 aikana. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena viitekehyksenä oli inhimillisen erehdyksen teoriaan perustuva järjestelmälähtöinen näkökulma. Tutkimusaineisto analysoitiin aineistolähtöisellä sisällönanalyysillä, jossa varjostus- ja haastatteluaineistosta etsittiin tutkimuksen tavoitteiden kannalta merkittäviä ilmaisuja. Reseptien uudistaminen on lääkäreiden näkökulmasta monivaiheinen prosessi. Prosessiin vaikuttivat useat uudistamista helpottavat ja vaikeuttavat järjestelmä-, potilas- ja lääkelähtöiset tekijät. Lääkärit tunnistivat ongelmakohtia uudistamisprosessin jokaisesta vaiheesta. Lääkäreiden mukaan etenkin tietojärjestelmien epäkäytännölliset ominaisuudet ja tekniset ongelmat sekä ajantasaisten lääkitystietojen ja tiedonkulun puutteet olivat uudistamistilanteissa ongelmallisia ja tekivät uudistamisesta työlästä. Myös kiire ja uudistettavien reseptien suuri määrä vaikeuttivat uudistamista. Ongelmien takia lääkärit kokivat, ettei lääkehoitojen seurantaa voitu tehdä uudistamistilanteessa perusteellisesti. Lääkäreiden ehdotuksia uudistamisprosessin kehittämiseen olivat uudistamisen parempi koordinointi, tietojärjestelmien ja tiedonvälityksen kehittäminen sekä moniammatillisen yhteistyön ja potilaan osallistamisen lisääminen.