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

Introduction

The County of Jönköping in Southern Sweden with a population of about 330,000 transformed its healthcare system to respond to the bad experience of an elderly patient in the late 1990s and introduced a patient-focused approach to health care. The graph below illustrates the shift from a traditional service provider-focused approach to one centred on the pathway of patients to health care. Read how the 'Esther approach' was developped and what it achieved.