eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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The objective of the study is to investigate the treatment methods of depression in public health care, and to conduct an analysis of the findings referring to a theoretical framework. A secondary objective was finding useful facts about the state of data recording, price formation, significance of outpatient care and others. The research first investigated possible and applicable approaches and metrics. Once they were chosen, they were described. The database of choice was the Ecomed system – a software package developed by Datawell Oy for the purpose of keeping patient records at HUS. The data was extracted from the database, evaluated and an empirical analysis was conducted. The empirical data consisted of an excel worksheet containing non-personal information of patient visits, costs, dates, places and other variables. The research showed that there are distinct patterns in treatment methodologies in terms of the duration of treatment. There are patient groups with treatment durations of 0 days, of up to 30 days, of up to 90 days, of up to 350 days, and of up to 1100 days. The mainly qualitative results show a degree of coherence with the theoretical framework. In addition, practicalfacts about price formation, frequencies of visits and others were shown (useful to the organization, not to the main aim of the study). The study paves way for progress in implementation of modernization projects at the organization.