Thursday, September 18

Organ Donation - here and there

First some information about Organ Donation from the Homepages of the Ministry of Health and Care Services (Norwegian.) A lot of links can be found on the right side of that page.
You can here find more information about the administration´s actions to increase numbers of donations and here INTERNATIONAL FIGURES ON ORGAN DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION - 2007

Second i give my Norwegian reading visitors a possibility to learn more about what the Minister Bjarne HÃ¥kon Hansen have initiated under the name Samhandlingsreformen

Norway is using most money within Health and welfare care in the world, but is not close to getting the expected Return of Investment (RoI). It is the system that is wrong. Failure in communication between different actors are the largest hurdle towards Quality Improvement, according to the administration.
(thanks to our contact in HOD for initial information)

We, who has been lucky receiving an organ from another when most needed, often feel that saving life is one thing, but the follow up in the years to come has not the same focus. Less and less resources seams to be prioritized to maintain the fantastic Gift for Life at hospitals, and the actors around the country have not been given training and resources to take over the control and support. RoI within this field should also be part of the TQM systems included in the "reform".
May be the Lov og forskrift om individuell plan for rehabilitation and continuous care must be required next time we see our doctors and visit "Rikshospitalet" for the annual control.

Third I want to draw special attention to the "Grey´s Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl and her mother Nancy and the Heigl family´s tireless work to raise awareness of organ, eye and tissue donation. This is a subject very close to their hearts, as Katherine's brother Jason was a donor after he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1986.
Katherine and her mother has received the Dr. James S. Wolf Courage Award

1 comment:

Rune Eide said...

According to my information USA has the "honour" of first place in the contest of having the most expensive health system. However, concerning the current follow-up in Norway I tend to agree with you, though I don't think pure business management systems are applicable on health care systems. It is impossible to run life with a surplus, but things can undoubtedly be done better in many areas.