The Aim of this Project
The aim of this projects to produce a knowledge-based understanding of how to promote strategic collaboration and expertise sharing in the Health Society in Østfold using the digital interaction tool «The Bridge of Knowledge».
The project will test how the Bridge of Knowledge in Østfold (KBØ) can be used as an arena for information sharing and dialogue in the health community regarding findings and experiences from two improvement efforts, which shall be initiated in 2022: “What is Inside?” and “Comprehensive patient process for hip fracture patients”, and through this further developing of KBØ as a user tool for service development, coordination and competence building between the health community units and in response to local challenges.
Background of the project
KBØ aims towards competence sharing between hospitals and municipalities in line with the agreement established between the health authority and the municipalities after the Cooperation Reform, and had been run as a one-year trial project in 2021.
The health society Østfold is oriented towards the creation of an organizational infrastructure for developing, testing and implementation of improvement initiatives, which involve several actors. The development work is managed by the Strategic Cooperation Committee, who sets the strategic guidelines for the work, and the Professional Cooperation Committee, which develops procedures and standards across services and levels. However, the complexity of the healthcare community makes unifying and continuous dialogue a challenge.
KBØ can have an important role in supporting the implementation of new standards and practices prepared by the Professional Cooperation Committee and adopted in the Strategic Cooperation Committee. An evaluation of the test project (https://www.kompetansebroen.no/article/hvordan-fungerer-kompetansebroen-ostfold-sa-langt-og-hvordan-kan-vi-utvikle-den-videre?o=ostfold) shows that there is need for a “bridge” so that the first line can succeed in translating decisions into permanent operations in the recipient organizations. Competence building is taken care of by a number of digital platforms, but no one takes care of the dialogue that can create a common language, understanding and practice around local interaction challenges as they appear in concrete patient processes. KBØ can become a “bridge” within the first-line services and between first-line and strategic levels in implementing decisions to permanent operation in the Health Society’s partner organizations. However, KBØ must further develop as an arena for interaction in order to contribute to well-functioning and holistic health and care services.
The Approach in the Collaborative Project
In this project, we approach KBØ not only as an innovation and a digital interaction tool, but also in the important organizational and coordination aspect it represents, which we will explore and develop further in this project.
In the literature, that has emerged on innovation in the public sector, the theoretical approach on collaborative-driven innovation (e.g. Sørensen and Torfing 2011) has received a lot of attention. The approach has specified the importance of bringing together actors to exchange experiences, assessments and ideas. At the same time, this literature points to numerous challenges to the collaborative-driven innovation. From the broader innovation research, it is also known that innovation processes require time, sustained pressure and continuous work to extract out the potential benefits.
The project will follow the two improvement works, “What’s Inside?” and “Comprehensive patient processes for hip fracture patients” to explore how KBØ can be further developed into a digital arena for interaction and competence building within the health society in Østfold. The project will be run by the local editorial staff in KBØ, a research group and a steering group that collaborates on gathering and analyzing the activities in the improvement measures.
The project design has thus established a connection between research and practice in two dimensions: scientific methods to collect data, and a follow-up research design to apply the findings about KBØ’s role in collaboration-driven innovation within the health society in Østfold.
Project Period
2022-2023
Funding
Cooperation Funding
Collaboration
Collaborative project between Østfold University College, Østfold Hospital, the Professional School Viken, the Development Center for Nursing Homes and Home Services (USHT), the Fredrikstad municipality and Strategic Cooperation Committee in the area of health enterprises.
Research Groups
The project explores themes within the Østfold University College's priority area, The Digital Society, and is linked to two research groups: The Digital Decision Support Systems and The Social Work Research Group.