[User involvement in hospital departments?].

BACKGROUND

Experiences of patients and next of kin are to be given a central role in the development of health services. However, little is known about the amount and types of user involvement at the service level.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A questionnaire regarding user involvement was sent to all administrative units (i.e. one or more departments or clinics) in Central Norway Regional Health Authority (n = 63).

RESULTS

38/53 (72 %) administrative units reported that they had involved users in the development of their services in many different ways. There were standing user committees, user representatives in standing committees, users taking part in patient education, users who were employed by the unit, contact with user organisations and results from user surveys. Users involved in their own treatment plans and more informal contact with users were also reported as user involvement.

INTERPRETATION

Health personnel reported a large variety of interactions with users. It is questionable whether all of these interactions can actually be defined as user involvement with a real impact on the development of health services at the level of hospital units.