Timo Purmonen from Medfiles’ Health economics unit contributed to a recent study in Suomen Lääkärilehti 6/2016 “Utilization of specialized health care services in the Central Finland Health Care District”. According to the study

• There are considerable variations in specialized health care service utilization in different age groups and in different areas within the hospital district. Municipality level data should be utilized more efficiently.
• A rather small group of patients (1% of all patients) may be responsible for a relatively large proportion (20%) of the total costs within the hospital district.