Changing Health Care from Inside Out: Policy Entrepreneur Questioning Ophthalmology Service Production in Finland

In: International journal of public and private healthcare management and economics: IJPPHME ; an official publication of the Information Resources Management Association, Band 1, Heft 1, S. 16-27

Abstract

Finnish ophthalmology services have been criticized for being suboptimal and in this regard, the authors analyze a development project set up to reform these services. The project descended into crisis 18 months after its launch, when its actors mapped out two different ways in which they perceived the problems related to ophthalmology and came up with different solutions to these problems. This paper pays special attention to the events following the crisis, when an external policy entrepreneur was recruited to lead the project. This policy entrepreneur did not adhere to either of the realities mapped out in the earlier stages of the project, but created interpretation of the problems at hand and their solutions. This paper focuses on the process in which the policy entrepreneur strove to convince other actors of the validity perceived interpretations. According to the analyse, the implementation of the new policy alternative consisted not only of a technically and politically feasible solution, but it also involved skillful policy making and right timing.