Abstract

Background: Identifying of frequent attenders has been a focus of research in health care for decades. Profiling frequent attenders from the perspective of joint service planning and knowledge-based management in social and health care services has not been previously studied.

Objective: To profile frequent attenders to social and health care services from the perspective of knowledgebased management.

Methods: The informants in this study were customers of different ages (n=56) who required the services of social and healthcare centres. The qualitative method used for analysing the service plan was the systematic analysis.

Results: Four customer profiles were classified, one for children and adolescents: Children and adolescents who are burdened by everyday concerns. The other three profiles were for adults: Mothers requiring support, Customers with multiple problems, Customers with an impaired capacity caused by substance abuse. In each of the profiles, physical, mental health and social problems were interlinked and customers had a need for multiprofessional and customised social and health care services to support their daily lives.

Conclusions: There is a need for an improved understanding of the different customer profiles of frequent attenders and knowledge about the social and health care services they use, as well as for mediating this knowledge across professional barriers and knowledge-based management. Defining customer profiles may help identify frequent customers who require multiprofessional social and healthcare services in order to develop effective care and services.