How good is EU health care?
The EU is supporting a new investigation into the performance of health care systems across its Member States. The EUR 3.99 million study will first be carried out in 7 EU countries, with more expected to follow during the project's 4-year lifespan. The EUROHOPE ('European health care outcomes, performance and efficiency') project received EUR 3 million in funding under the Health Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and is being coordinated by the Centre for Health and Social Economics at Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). In 2007, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) commissioned a survey of over 27,000 people from EU Member States to gauge interest in receiving treatments from other EU countries (i.e. cross-border health care). For the individuals who said they were unwilling to travel elsewhere in the EU for health care, satisfaction with the health care available at home revealed major differences between Member States. In general, 89% of citizens from the EU-15 Member States and 59% from new EU Member States said they were satisfied with the treatment they could get in their own country; this represents a 30% difference. While the survey relied on interviews and approached the national issue indirectly, the EUROHOPE project will target the effectiveness of national systems in a more comprehensive manner. The aim is to develop methods that can be used for routine evaluation of care in the EU and to improve current monitoring standards. The researchers will use specific microeconomic methods to measure performance, quality, use of resources and health care cost. These areas will be measured in the treatment of five key public health problems or diseases: acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hip fracture, breast cancer and low birth weight premature infants. EUROPHOPE will use groundwork established under the PERFECT ('Performance, effectiveness and cost of treatment episodes') study to expand the research (conducted initially in Finland) to the European level. PERFECT, also led by THL, developed a measurement method to determine the cost-effectiveness of care using information from registers, and created a database to compare the cost-effectiveness of care between hospitals, districts, regions and specific groups. By using this data and by collating additional information on quality of life measures and patient satisfaction and expectations, the team will evaluate the performance of health care systems in the EU. The first seven countries to be assessed are Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Scotland). The researchers will also investigate the link between the outcomes and the costs across European countries, regions and providers, and assess the reasons behind potential differences. Their focus will be on policy-driven factors, such as treatment practices, medicine use, technology, waiting times, funding and reforms. Ultimately, the EUROHOPE project will generate a list of recommendations on indicators that should be routinely collected and published by the EU, with particular reference to the 'European Community Health Indicators' (ECHI) project. The team also expects to develop methods that can be used for international comparative health service research using register data.
Countries
Finland, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom