Aspects of Equality in Mandatory Partnerships – From the Perspective of Municipal Care in Norway

INTRODUCTION: This paper raises questions about equality in partnerships, since imbalance in partnerships may effect collaboration outcomes in integrated care. We address aspects of equality in mandatory, public-public partnerships, from the perspective of municipal care. We have developed a questionnaire wherein the Norwegian Coordination Reform is an illustrative example. The following research question is addressed: What equality dimensions are important for municipals related to mandatory partnerships with hospitals? THEORY/METHODS: Since we did not find any instrument to measure equality in partnerships, an explorative design was chosen. The development of the instrument was based on the theory on partnership and knowledge about the field and context. A national online survey was emitted to all 429 Norwegian municipalities in 2013. The response rate was in total 58 percent (n = 248). The data were mainly analysed using Principal component analysis. RESULTS: It seems that the two dimensions “learning and expertise equality” and “contractual equality” collects reliable and valid data to measure aspects of equality in partnerships. DISCUSSION: Partnerships are usually based on voluntarism. The results indicate that mandatory partnerships, within a public health care system, can be appropriate to equalize partnerships between health care providers at different care levels.