Karolinska and County Council--Stockholm Day 3

Our first meeting today (Tuesday) was at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, where we met Dr. Erna Petterson, the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief of Research at Karolinska, Dr. Sten Lindahl. We learned about patient quality and safety as well as about the challenges in research and medical education at the university hospital.

Four years ago, Karolinska Hospital merged with the Huddinge university hospital and the new, combined hospital has nearly 15,000 employees, 1, 700 beds, 99,000 admissions and 1.3 million patient visits per year--and a budget of almost 2 billion dollars. Yes, it is big, and, indeed, its 68 departments present quite a challenge to a person such as Dr. Lindahl, whose job it is to think about how to redesign and synchronize the many specialties into more functional areas of research. We were warmly welcomed by our hosts and treated to a fascinating presentation by Dr. Petterson about maintaining continuous quality control of health care delivery and ensuring patient safety. We also learned that the the hospital is under the jurisdiction of the Stockholm County Council, which just happened to be our next place to visit.

After having barely finished our lunches at Karolinska, we jumped into the bus and rushed to Landstingshuset, the home of Stockholm's County Council. Ms. Gunnel Blomgren came to meet us at the lobby and took us upstairs to a meeting room that once served as a military hospital ward (an appropriate place for discussing health care). The afternoon's informational package we received is too multifaceted to explain in detail; let's just say that we now have a pretty good idea about--among other things--the financing of health care system at the county level, the health care needs assessment for Stockholm County population, and the inner workings of the health care reimbursement system. Thanks also to Gunnel's colleagues Michael Hogberg and Milan Knezevic.

After two information-packed days, tomorrow we'll transform from students to tourists and visit Vasa Museum and Skansen. We have much information to digest and reflect upon while strolling around in the open air museum ... unless it rains.