Poliklinika Salvea is a clinic located in the west of Zagreb that provides healthcare for its youngest patients through a holistic approach. By offering a breadth of services tailored to individual patient needs, this ambitious team is introducing new trends in the healthcare services market in Croatia, placing the patient, or as they say, the person, at the center of their entire operation.
The realization of the opening of the Poliklinika was quite fast, yet thorough. What were the biggest challenges for you during this process and how demanding was it?
Although the idea of the Poliklinika had existed for some time among the owners, the actual realization took less than a year. The process involved a lot, from establishing a business strategy, finding suitable premises, obtaining building permits, constructing and equipping the raw space in accordance with legal and medical standards, recruiting and hiring a team of doctors, nurses, assistants, subspecialists, procuring high-quality equipment, to establishing external collaborations and setting up a quality, sustainable, and efficient system. In just over a year, we opened over 20 specialties and related fields focused on children’s health and established cooperation with nearly 50 experts in this area. As a Master of Pharmacy and Economics, this project has allowed me to combine my two greatest passions, previous knowledge and experience, and it fulfills me every day to proactively create healthcare as it should be in terms of quality and patient approach. Additionally, we are continuously working on expanding our service offerings so we can say that in a way we are also building the healthcare of the future.
When you talk about quality and patient approach, what steps have you taken to offer a new standard of healthcare services in Croatia?
First of all, we have tried to avoid all the well-known challenges that arise in healthcare. Our doctors have enough time to dedicate to patients and have access to top-notch technology. We considered all parameters to achieve the highest level of quality. From the Poliklinika’s premises, where attention is paid to every detail to create a pleasant environment, for which we recently received an international award, to being equipped with the most modern ventilation systems to ensure our patients feel safe, to top diagnostic devices selected by eminent Croatian pediatric specialists and subspecialists, to the careful selection of staff who love working with children, nurture a passion for pediatrics, and are genuinely dedicated to the youngest patients. We have also carefully structured processes in the Poliklinika considering the complete patient experience, from the first contact with the Poliklinika to the patient’s exit. We have introduced numerous services that have not been represented in pediatric clinics until now. We approach health integratively and want to be a model of holistic treatment for children. We strive to give healthcare a new dimension where a visit to the doctor can be relaxed, pleasant, and even fun, where you are treated as a family member.
Through your work, you emphasize the importance of a patient-centered focus in the healthcare system. This is a common theme in our healthcare, but is it really like that in practice? Is enough attention given to the patient?
Although the patient is often the focus of discussion in healthcare, only one in six Croatian citizens believes that this is truly the case. Often, the patient must seek information from multiple sources, visit various institutions and doctors, and gets lost in the complexity of the system. Statistics show that the average Croatian citizen in good health lives until the age of 59, and Croatia unfortunately ranks as the ninth worst country in the European Union in terms of the share of life lived in poor health, with an average life expectancy of 76.7 years. Citizens rated healthcare in 2024 with a score of 2.7 out of a possible 5, which is significantly lower than in 2020 when the score was 3.3. This shows that there is room for improvement in healthcare services and a greater focus on the patient from the earliest days. We need to think about what we, as active participants in healthcare, can do to help them lead a healthier and more fulfilling life. Our contribution to the patient should be in the form of efficiently addressing their problems, achieving the best possible treatment outcomes, activating all necessary stakeholders in healthcare, and fostering communication among professionals, a more dedicated and humane approach to patients, as well as education and work on health literacy for patients and parents.
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How does the Poliklinika dedicate itself to the patient and how do you specifically approach educating parents and increasing health literacy in families?
We approach the patient primarily as a person. Patient-centered health emphasizes the wholeness of the human being, and not just treating the symptoms of illness but considering its cause. We take into account the broader environment of the patient and strive to achieve their full biological potential. We actively educate parents from the very first examination and work on the health literacy of the entire family. We publicly discuss the topics that concern us most regarding the health of the youngest.
In our commitment to patients and their families, we care about their overall experience. From initial information about the Poliklinika and scheduling appointments, team collaboration, and organizing clinics through a circular arrangement of rooms, to proactively checking whether the patient’s condition has improved. Upon arriving at the Poliklinika, after a warm and friendly encounter with our nurses, the conversation continues with the doctor who strives to carefully listen to the concerns of parents and patients, diagnose, and efficiently resolve the issue for which the patient came, taking into account all relevant information that can contribute to an even better quality of life for the patient. The doctor aims to further educate the parents and, if necessary, involves top specialists from various fields so that parents receive all important information in one place. We strive to empower the entire family with enough knowledge so that together we can achieve good treatment outcomes.
You place great importance on patient experience. Is there a way you evaluate parents’ satisfaction with the service provided?
As we know that our main product is actually the service we offer, you can evaluate the quality of your visit on-site. We truly want to always be transparent with our clients and appreciate every verbal and written comment we receive from parents. After the visit, patients and parents can evaluate their satisfaction through internal surveys, where we monitor the cognitive evaluation and emotional response of parents and children. One of our greatest strengths is our culture, which we actively manage and whose foundations we essentially nurture, where the relationship between employees is such that great importance is given to open communication and feedback among colleagues. Given that we live a culture of feedback, patient and parent reviews are always more than welcome. We know that this is crucial for the constant improvement of processes and that communication needs to be two-way in order to meet, and we hope exceed, our patients’ expectations.
