This qualitative study highlights significant gaps in communication, understanding, and organizational structure in post-cardiovascular event follow-up care.
Coordination gaps in post-cardiovascular follow-up require attention; leaves open whether targeted interventions improve collaboration and structures.
The study explores the experience and understanding of stakeholders involved in follow-up services after a cardiovascular event. A multimethod approach was used consisting of questionnaires, telephone surveys, and in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Five themes were identified: patients wished to be seen in their total context, patients should do as told; healthcare professionals perform check-ups and control cardiac risk factors; healthcare professionals are in charge of the care processes; and the structure and processes of the healthcare organization. Results indicate that healthcare professionals have considerable difficulty in understanding the patient's situation and to collaborate between different levels of care. Furthermore, the total healthcare organization lacked comprehensive and practical structures in the follow-up process, rehabilitation, and secondary preventive services.
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Henriksen et al. (2003) studied this question.
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