Mio Fredriksson

Associate professor (PhD, Master of Social Sciences) focusing on healthcare governance, state-local relations, political reforms and ideological values in healthcare. This includes, for example, studies on patient choice, equity, priorities and patient and public involvement.

Research Interests

My research interests focuses on political governance of healthcare, for example multi-level governance (state-county council), knowledge management, and governance through patient choice of healthcare provider. I am also interested in health care reforms; both the political ideas behind and the effects of reforms.

For example, I have investigated how national-level politicians argued before the introducing choice in primary care, how quality registry data is used in improvement work around Sweden, how politicians argue and act when county councils have financial problems, and how patients and citizens think they can best participate in and make decisions in healthcare.

Ongoing projects

Decommissioning in local health systems

The research project follows the restructuring of healthcare in the County Council of Dalarna, which began in 2015 as a response to the poor economy. Little is known about how, and under what circumstances, such changes occur, and what leads to a successful outcome. The overall aim of the project is to investigate how large-scale priorities and rationalizations are decided and implemented in a complex organization with many actors. Aspects investigated are the decision process; partly from the management perspective, partly from the heads of clinics. Furthermore, we investigate how the media portrayed the restructuring process and the public's knowledge and views about the structural and change process. Theoretically, the project uses theories on retrenchment and decommissioning.

How does national inspections affect welfare professions?

(Principal Investigator: Linda Moberg) In the wake of NPM reforms, there has been an increased focus on auditing, or controlling that providers of public services fulfill stipulated objectives and provide high quality services. In Sweden, this process has not least been characterized by an increased demand for national supervision and inspections on site. The increased focus on audit has led to a growing concern among researchers regarding the implications of auditing for welfare professionals. So far, most studies have indicated that auditing limits the scope of professional discretion since the professions tends to adjust their work to what is being audited. Although the literature on audit and its effects on welfare professions are quite comprehensive, few empirical studies have focused on the relationship between national inspections and professional discretion. This is surprising since research has indicated that inspections, at least theoretically, can have both positive and negative implication for professional discretion, depending on how it is designed and carried out. The aim with this project is thus to contribute to this literature by studying what inspection strategies that are used to supervise Swedish health care, education and eldercare, and if these strategies are compatible with professional discretion.