Promotion of Primary Health Care PLUS project in Poland by active inviting patients to health check-ups

Introduction: Coordinated care implementation plans in Poland will be based on solutions developed in Primary Health Care PLUS project co-financed from the European Social Fund. Adequate communication strategy is required to promote patients’ participation. Description of policy context and objective: The aim of communication strategy proposed by National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia – NFZ) was to invite patients by sending the message to the society that the new coordinated care model in their medical entities offers better services, easier access to doctors and free prevention programs. Key communication channels were: local media (interviews with site managers, articles and press releases), visuals (announcements, posters, leaflets, gadgets) and direct contact with coordinators, responsible for answering patients’ questions at the facility level. Regional branch of NFZ introduced "FOR PATIENT" tab on the own www.pozplus.pl portal. Targeted population: The project started on 1st July 2018. Current target number of its first component - health check-ups - is 41402 patients. 7923 patients (4582 females and 3341 males) were invited for health check-ups by 41 medical entities till the end of August 2018. The number of invitations and resulting numbers of receptions or refusals is monitored by NFZ. Highlights: There were 1429 (18%) refusals: 742 females and 687 males. The only entity which had no refusals - NZOZ Zdrowie in Janow Lubelski - having small rural population of 2700 participating in the project - invited 247 patients (159 females and 88 males) till end of September 2018, what resulted in 247 HCUs started; and 5 basic HCUs and 57 in-depth ones completed until cut-off date. To reveal the source of this success, interviews with 3 health educators working in the entity were conducted, followed by validation with 2 managers. They described own proven methods of communication with the local society added. The entity was experienced in similar activities (grant in chronic diseases area in 2013), and the local society appreciated carrying out effective and valuable preventive actions, for which they received local distinctions. The information about the program PHC PLUS was disseminated locally with help of: village administrator (printed materials), local priest (advertisements in the church), commune office and workplaces (information boards), local voluntary fire fighters (during local events) and physicians contacting individual patients for another reasons. Some patients joined NZOZ Zdrowie in Janow Lubelski thanks to this information action. This promotional campaign was conducted only for 2 months resulting in many patients willing to participate, spontaneous self-referrals, waiting lists and no refusals in case of an invitation obtained. Transferability: Adding locally used confident methods of communication, and reliance on an earlier authority was found to be very effective and such initiatives should be promoted in next steps of implementation of coordinated care across the country in Poland in wider scale or in other countries of the region. Conclusions: Past experiences and high level of engagement of local society resulted in effective implementation of communication strategy. Coherence and effectiveness of the messages would depend on the cooperation between the entities involved in such projects.