in content lists or on the content page.The first-stage results of the development project show promise
In 2005, Sitra and the City of Vaasa launched a project developing phone services for dental care. The follow-up results of the first stage of the project have shown that the activity could be improved, both in terms of the quality of customer service and of productivity.
In order for new technology to be fully utilised and thereby to make the operative and service structures of health-care centres more customer friendly and productive, the operations need to be supported by a contact centre. In Vaasa, the contact centre for dental care was launched in spring 2005 under the agreement signed by the City of Vaasa dental-care unit and Sitra.
“The ways of improving the phone services had been considered for some time before the project was implemented,” says Jukka Kentala, Chief Physician for the City of Vaasa dental care.
An intermediate evaluation of the development project has now been conducted as the operations of the contact centre have been established. On Professor Juhani Kinnunen’s proposal, the evaluation was carried out by Professor Pirkko Vartiainen, and Seija Ollila, Doctor of Administrative Sciences from the Faculty of Public Administration, University of Vaasa.
Improving quality and productivity
The results of the first stage of the project have shown that the activity could be improved both in terms of the quality of customer service and of productivity. The results are very encouraging. It has been agreed that the dental careservices in Vaasa will introduce a combined product in December 2006, in which the telephone consultation and web and mobile services are combined into one system. The operations are expected to result in a true success story both in the Finnish and international contexts.
“Development is seldom achieved in isolation. It is our hope that the good results we have now accomplished will encourage Vaasa, as well as other cities and federations of municipalities, to actively support further development of this concept in occupational health care, health-care centres, and specialised health care as well as in the management of national chronic diseases,” says Ilmo Parvinen, Business Director for Sitra’s Health Care Programme.
Further information
Ilmo Parvinen
Business Director, Sitra’s Health Care Programme
Tel. +358 9 6189 9428
firstname.lastname@sitra.fi