The 2014 survey of healthcare professionals supplements a 2013 survey of healthcare consumers on major topics.

The 2014 survey reveals the views of healthcare professionals on the system's overall performance: its ability to continue to attract patients, its maturity in terms of innovation and the use of new technologies and the main drivers of increased costs. It also indicates many possible avenues for improving the system, suggested by healthcare professionals.

“In light of the challenges facing the healthcare system, we thought it would be appropriate to collect the perceptions of Luxembourg healthcare professionals in 2014 and compare them with the perceptions of health care consumers in our 2013 and 2011 surveys.” Luc Brucher, partner for healthcare and life sciences at Deloitte Luxembourg, says.

The Luxembourg healthcare system faced numerous challenges and constraints in 2014. Many critical projects, such as revising the hospital plan and the doctor referral system, improving the quality of service documentation and implementing the shared electronic patient record (DSP - Dossier Soins Partagé), are still in progress and represent an ambitious agenda for 2015.

The main findings of the surveys on the perceptions of healthcare professionals and consumers led to conclusions in five key areas:

Generally positive perception of the system performance
Like healthcare consumers, healthcare professionals give the system high marks for performance, with 75% of all categories combined ranking it “good” or “very good”. Similarly, professionals think that the current system adequately meets the needs of healthcare consumers.

Centres of competence favoured
On average, over 86% of professionals say that creating centres of competence would allow for better coordination of care and optimum access to medical expertise.
Furthermore, a large majority of professionals (more than 61% on average, with a high of 74% for doctors) think that creating centres of competence would improve quality but would not reduce costs. This is another point on which professionals and consumers agree.

Electronic patient record (DSP) should have a positive impact
In the opinion of healthcare professionals and consumers, computerising medical records via the electronic patient record (DSP) should improve the management and availability of medical information, as well as the coordination of healthcare activities.
It should be noted that 80% of professionals consider the protection of personal data to be a “very important” or “extremely important” factor for a successful implementation of the DSP.
However, successful implementation of the DSP also depends on doctors' willingness to be transparent and a strong involvement in the setup and deployment process.

Creating the ideal hospital experience
Regarding the ideal hospital experience, an important survey point for consumers, healthcare professionals stressed the following differentiating factors:

• Knowledge and competence of doctors and caregivers with respect to the treated health problems
• A patient care process that incorporates a multidisciplinary approach
• Providing patients with good explanations in terms comprehensible to consumers, listening to patients and showing respect for patients

Possible avenues for improvement
Lastly, the survey reveals that the main reasons for seeking medical care abroad are the same for healthcare professionals as for healthcare consumers. Respondents pointed mainly to higher quality diagnoses and treatment and to the availability of doctors and hospitals that can treat specific patient health problems.
How, then, can the performance of the Luxembourg healthcare system be improved? Here again, the survey reveals a number of possibilities. Among the suggestions from healthcare professionals themselves:

• Encouraging preventive behaviour (e.g. eating better and exercising regularly) and anticipating health problems by means of testing and early detection
• Publishing more information on the quality of care and services in Luxembourg to allow consumers to make more informed choices
• Improving the tracking of the strengths and weaknesses of the various treatments offered in order to enable true comparative analyses

Results of Deloitte's 2014 survey announced
The main trends in the survey were announced on 28 January at Deloitte's fourth annual conference on healthcare and life sciences in the presence of around 100 Luxembourg professionals and market experts. The conference, organised in collaboration with the Luxembourg Hospital Federation (FHL) was chaired successively by Lydia Mutsch, Minister for Health and for Equal Opportunities; Luc Brucher, Partner, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Deloitte Luxembourg, and Paul Junck, FHL President.

Find the complete survey in French on the Deloitte Luxembourg website, at www.deloitte.com/lu/lshc-outlook-2015