Patient focused healthcare: an important concept for provision and management of space and services to the healthcare sector

How will the relationship between patients, the service level and the geographic conditions in healthcare develop in the future? The task will be of great impact for location of new properties and the use of existing healthcare buildings. In order to improve healthcare space requirements, it is important to understand the expression “horizontal integrated care”. Defining terms will enhance the communication between providers, companies and individuals. The research also looks into the phenomenon of “local hospital”. The first step is to analyse these terms and describe the definitions from collected material obtained by a questionnaire, interviews and searches on the Web. The main issue is to give the conception a broad validity. This study gives a definition that can be shared by most parties in healthcare today and will enhance the communication in healthcare issues.