The Esther approach to healthcare in Sweden: A business case for radical improvement

Objectives

The key objective of this new approach was to create a network that would help patients feel confident, independent and secure by ensuring that they:

• receive care in or close to home;
• know where and who to turn to for care;
• see the healthcare system as an entity working together to provide their care;
• have access to quality care across the whole region.

This required the healthcare system to commit to the following principles of quality management (Wackerberg and Svensson, 2011):

• Staff commitment to the vision of the Esther Network.
• Increased competence across the whole care chain.
• Close working relations and support within the entire care chain to achieve the best for the patient.
• Efforts to continuously improve quality.