The European Health Consumer Index
The EHCI 2014 total ranking shows The Netherlands again widening the gap to country #2 from 19 points in 2013 to 43 points in 2014, (in 2012, the margin was 50 points), scoring 898 2 points out of 1000, an EHCI all time high. Beginning from Switzerland (855 points) down, the EHCI 2014 shows competition at the top getting much harder. Bronze medallists are Norway at 851 points; the very high per capita spend on healthcare services finally paying off! Finland (4th, 846 points) has made a remarkable advance, and seems to have rectified its traditional waiting time problems! Denmark (5th, 836 points) has shown a continuous rise since the start of the comparisons. Some eastern European EU member systems are doing surprisingly well, particularly the Czech Republic and Estonia, considering their much smaller healthcare spend in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted dollars per capita. The FYR Macedonia is making the most remarkable advance in the EHCI scoring of any country in the history of the Index, from 27th to 16th place, largely due to more or less eliminating waiting lists by implementing their real time e-Booking system! Some key conclusions Consumer and patient rights are improving. In a growing number of European countries there is healthcare legislation explicitly based on patient rights and a functional access to your own medical record is becoming standard. Hospital/clinic catalogues with quality ranking used to be confined to two – three countries for years; the 2014 number of nine countries hopefully is a sign that something is happening in this area, supporting active consumer choice.
About the EHCI
The Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), the independent monitoring of healthcare in 36 countries, published its 8th edition January 27, 2015. Since 2006 this comparison of key values in healthcare, taking the patient and consumer point of view, has improved the understanding of European healthcare, empowered patients and helped addressing weaknesses. EHCI, and a wide range of disease-specific studies produced by the Health Consumer Powerhouse Ltd. (HCP) set standards for what could and should be achieved by modern, well-serving healthcare. The 50 Index productions are freely available at www.healthpowerhouse.com. The EHCI 2014 has been supported by unrestricted grants from Medicover S.A., Belgium, and New Direction Foundation, Belgium
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