Integrated care: the impact of governmental behaviour on collaborative networks (original) (raw)
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Public Administration, 2002
The concept of integrated care has assumed growing importance on the policy agendas both in England and The Netherlands and elsewhere. It is characterized as health and health care-related social care needed by patients with multi-faceted needs. This article compares policy approaches to integrated care in England and The Netherlands. Differing political strategies and conditions for integrated care correspond to the dissimilarities in the institutional structure and culture of their health care systems. Health care systems are understood as specific national and historical configurations. We review the last decade's relevant policy processes, using the concepts of hierarchy, market and network. The state health care system in England relies mainly on hierarchical steering, thus creating tight network structures for integrated care on the local level. The Netherlands, with its health care system in a public-private mix, has set incentives for voluntary, loosely coupled and partly market-driven cooperation on the local level. Implications for success or failure are mixed in both configurations. Policy recommendations have to be tailored to each systems' characteristics.
Health Promotion International, 2012
This study explores the system of intermediate organizations in Dutch health care as the crucial system to understand health care policy-making in the Netherlands. We argue that the Dutch health care system can be understood as a system consisting of distinct but interrelated policy domains. In this study, we analyze four such policy domains: Finances, quality of care, manpower planning and pharmaceuticals. With the help of network analytic techniques, we describe how this highly differentiated system of .200 intermediate organizations is structured and coordinated and what (policy) consequences can be observed with regard to its particular structure and coordination mechanisms. We further analyze the extent to which this system of intermediate organizations enables participation of stakeholders in policy-making using network visualization tools. The results indicate that coordination between the different policy domains within the health care sector takes place not as one would expect through governmental agencies, but through representative organizations such as the representative organizations of the (general) hospitals, the health care consumers and the employers' association. We further conclude that the system allows as well as denies a large number of potential participants access to the policy-making process. As a consequence, the representation of interests is not necessarily balanced, which in turn affects health care policy. We find that the interests of the Dutch health care consumers are well accommodated with the national umbrella organization NPCF in the lead. However, this is no safeguard for the overall community values of good health care since, for example, the interests of the public health sector are likely to be marginalized.
Networks and governance: the case of intermediate care
Health & Social Care in the Community, 2006
The present paper describes a novel approach to the study of services conceptualised as networks. It uses data collected as part of a case study evaluation of intermediate care, a 'joined-up government' policy that was explicitly intended to dissolve the boundaries between health and social care services. The evaluation was undertaken in five localities in England. Routine service use data were collated and standardised for the 12-month period from November 2002 to October 2003. A cohort of 258 service users was recruited during a census month ( June 2003), and more detailed data on their personal characteristics and experiences prior to and during their intermediate care episode were collected. Information was obtained for 153 of these people, covering their experience during the 6 months following discharge. A graphical method of depicting individuals' movements between services was devised and a number of measures were used to investigate the network-like features of the data. User outcomes were explored by examining the relationship of characteristics of service users to their location at 6 months after discharge. The results of the analyses show that the five sites were developing service configurations that facilitated transitions between health, social care and other services, and that individual needs were taken into account in the decisions made about which people transferred into which services. While the results cannot be said to show that joined-up government works, they are consistent with the argument that joined-up government goes beyond partnership-type concepts, and in practice, involves the creation of what might be termed integrated service networks.
Inter-agency services in England and The Netherlands
Health Policy, 1999
In England and the Netherlands there is much comparable experience in developing and delivering integrated services, provided by different health care agencies to people with multiple care demands. The achievement of integrated care provision in such cases appears to be very difficult and laborious in both countries. This article may be considered a first step in exploring the reasons for this and in developing a framework that is not context specific, as a contribution to a more generally applicable analysis of obstacles to integration and the means for overcoming them. After analysing the English and Dutch health and social care systems and their development in recent decades, we conclude that basically there are clear system similarities which are hindering the integration of services, for instance the predominant complexity of the system with a lot of stakeholders having different roles, tasks, interests and power positions. We have identified common mechanisms that play a dominant role in both systems; not only the social, economic and political context, but also the local context, the legal context and funding streams. Other relevant factors are the procedural and structural arrangements at different system levels and the collaborative culture and tradition.
Governance of local care and social service
The introduction of the Dutch Social Support Act (in Dutch: Wmo) in 2007 symbolises a major welfare state reform in the Netherlands. It concerns the decentralisation of tasks and responsibilities with regard to social care and support. This reform is not only a matter of shifting tasks and responsibilities from central government to local government; the Wmo was also intended to cause a paradigm shift that should change the way in which clients, citizens, governments and providers act and think. The core of this paradigm is formed by the compensation principle which describes the replacement of citizens’ rights on care by an obligation for municipalities to compensate citizens. If the Wmo is however purely regarded as a decentralisation of tasks, its implementation may, three years after its introduction, be considered a success. After all, municipalities are making serious efforts to regulate home care and social support. Most crucially, however, is the question whether this actual...
A four phase development model for integrated care services in the Netherlands
BMC Health Services Research, 2009
Background: Multidisciplinary and interorganizational arrangements for the delivery of coherent integrated care are being developed in a large number of countries. Although there are many integrated care programs worldwide, the process of developing these programs and interorganizational collaboration is described in the literature only to a limited extent. The purpose of this study is to explore how local integrated care services are developed in the Netherlands, and to conceptualize and operationalize a development model of integrated care.
Integration or Fragmentation of Health Care? Examining Policies and Politics in a Belgian Case Study
2021
BACKGROUND Globally, health systems have been struggling to cope with the increasing burden of chronic diseases and respond to associated patient needs. Integrated care (IC) for chronic diseases offers solutions, but implementing these new models requires multi-stakeholder action and integrated policies to address social, organisational, and financial barriers. Policy implementation for IC has been little studied, especially through a political lens. This paper examines how IC policies in Belgium were developed over the last decade and how stakeholders have played a role in these policies. METHODS We used a case study design. After an exploratory document review, we selected three IC policies. We then interviewed 25 key stakeholders in the field of IC. The stakeholder analysis entailed a detailed mapping of the stakeholders' power, position, and interest related to the three selected policies. Interview participants included policy-makers, civil servants (from ministry of health...