Healthcare in Denmark
Healthcare in Denmark is largely provided by the local governments of the five regions, with coordination and regulation by central government, while nursing homes, home care, and school health services are the responsibility of the 98 municipalities.
Use of electronic health records is widespread, and efforts are underway to integrate these at the regional level.
In 2007, a reorganization gave general practitioners more duties while health care decision-making was centralized.
[1] In April 2015 it was announced by Health Minister Nick Haekkerup and President of Danish Regions Bent Hansen that it was to be abandoned.
The time has come to strengthen it by putting the patient at the centre, rather than focusing on compliance with a variety of standards.
The 98 local communes have long had responsibilities for nursing homes and care services.
From 1997 all new housing for older people was required to have at least a bedroom, sitting room, kitchen, and bath.
[4] The nursing home was closed and became a hub for community support services which included a senior center, day care, rehabilitation, 24-hour home care, and assisted living organised in three geographical teams.
[6] The five regions are attempting to address this problem by each setting up their own electronic health record systems for public hospitals.
According to the OECD, in 2016 the private healthcare expenditure in Denmark was $831 U.S. dollars per capita (approximately 1.7 percent of GDP).
Most are in group 1, which includes the majority of general practitioners, who are paid on a combined capitation and fee-for-service basis in a similar way to those in the United Kingdom.
The regions determine the number and location of general practitioners, and their fees and working conditions are negotiated centrally between the physicians' union and the government.
[12] According to the Danish Ministry of Health, the hospital sector is undergoing modernized restructuring by "merging specialised functions into fewer and larger units.
Denmark has made dramatic advances in the reduction of heart disease mortality according to the Euro health consumer index.
Virtually all primary care physicians have electronic medical records with full clinical functionality.
In an attempt to unify their fragmented e-health network, the Zealand regions will begin using a common EMR in 2016, Epic.
According to the Danish Ministry of Health, the number of patients who have received psychiatric hospital services has increased 28 percent from 2009 to 2014.
