Governance key elements - Contributing to effective collaboration in a healthcare network

Abstract

Given the increasing costs of healthcare and growing numbers of patients with chronic conditions that require care, it is inevitable that the current care processes will need to be organised differently. A collaboration of various medical service providers and organisations as one network, “a care network”, that directly and indirectly contributes to the provision of care could be a solution. However, the question arises of how to ensure that these care networks run efficiently and successfully with every service provider and organisation involved? Each with its own priorities, sometimes contradictory, and the presence of different types of governance. This study focuses on the governance elements that contribute to effective management of a care network: shared vision and strategy, collective decision-making, and continuous improvement and performance measurement. Through semi-structured interviews with three Dutch care networks, these elements were validated and potential success factors were identified through qualitative case studies. It was found that the elements of shared vision and strategy and collective decision-making do assist in the governance of care networks, which reaffirms the insights from the literature. However, to the component of continuous improvement and performance measurement, more additional research is needed to gain further insights regarding implementation.

Date of Award	26 Jul 2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	Rob Vanwersch (Supervisor) & Pien Walraven (Examiner)