Priority setting in healthcare is inevitable and has far-reaching consequences for patients and caregivers. In Norway, we set priorities based on the criteria of benefit, resources, and severity.
We have well established systems for priority setting at the system level, but frameworks and guidelines at the clinical level are less comprehensive and agreed upon.
Research questions
- Do clinicians think of the same thing when they are asked to 'prioritise harder'?
- Is the concept of priority setting unambiguous?
- How is the concept delimited against adjacent concepts like 'treatment limitation', 'efficiency', or 'choose wisely'?
- What ethical conflicts arise in connection with clinical priority settings?
- And how do clinicians perceive themselves; as someone who 'do' priority settings, or as someone who 'execute' priority settings?
Research methods
Through conversations with a wide range of healthcare personnel at Ahus and other collaborating hospitals in the region, CLINPRI will procure qualitative raw material for further analysis of this issue.
Quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to describe the diversity of meanings based on different theoretical frameworks.
The project’s main focus is limited to healthcare personnel in specialist health services, but also aims to uncover understandings of priority settings in primary healthcare.
Goal
The goal is to make it easier for decision-makers and politicians to design guidelines and regulations for clinical priority setting, and for clinicians to communicate with each other and their leaders about priority settings in the clinic.
About us
The researchers working with CLINPRI are broadly composed and include philosophers, economists, doctors, and other healthcare personnel.
Funding
Health South-East (HSØ 2024–2027)
