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Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin

INTRODUCTION: Many countries report difficulties in preserving access to care in rural areas. This paper examines how hard-to-serve regions sustain care provision by transforming service delivery into population health systems. THEORY AND METHODS: The paper builds on theory on care delivery in hard-...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mitterlechner, Matthias, Hollfelder, Céline, Koppenberg, Joachim
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Ubiquity Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6128041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30202396
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ijic.3353
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author Mitterlechner, Matthias
Hollfelder, Céline
Koppenberg, Joachim
author_facet Mitterlechner, Matthias
Hollfelder, Céline
Koppenberg, Joachim
author_sort Mitterlechner, Matthias
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Many countries report difficulties in preserving access to care in rural areas. This paper examines how hard-to-serve regions sustain care provision by transforming service delivery into population health systems. THEORY AND METHODS: The paper builds on theory on care delivery in hard-to-serve regions. It presents a qualitative case study from the Lower Engadin, a rural high mountain valley in the Swiss Alps. Data sources include semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and documents. Data are analysed using recent conceptual research on population health systems. RESULTS: The case study illustrates how politicians and providers in the Lower Engadin resolved a care crisis and preserved access to care by forming a population health system. The system is organised around the Healthcare Centre Lower Engadin. Citizen-centred interventions target an aging population and include health promotion and prevention programs as well as case management based on an ambulatory-before-inpatient care strategy. CONCLUSION: Hard-to-serve regions like the Lower Engadin preserve access to care by reorganising service delivery towards population health systems. The paper contributes to research on population health systems and care provision in rural areas.
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spelling pubmed-61280412018-09-10 Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin Mitterlechner, Matthias Hollfelder, Céline Koppenberg, Joachim Int J Integr Care Integrated Care Case INTRODUCTION: Many countries report difficulties in preserving access to care in rural areas. This paper examines how hard-to-serve regions sustain care provision by transforming service delivery into population health systems. THEORY AND METHODS: The paper builds on theory on care delivery in hard-to-serve regions. It presents a qualitative case study from the Lower Engadin, a rural high mountain valley in the Swiss Alps. Data sources include semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and documents. Data are analysed using recent conceptual research on population health systems. RESULTS: The case study illustrates how politicians and providers in the Lower Engadin resolved a care crisis and preserved access to care by forming a population health system. The system is organised around the Healthcare Centre Lower Engadin. Citizen-centred interventions target an aging population and include health promotion and prevention programs as well as case management based on an ambulatory-before-inpatient care strategy. CONCLUSION: Hard-to-serve regions like the Lower Engadin preserve access to care by reorganising service delivery towards population health systems. The paper contributes to research on population health systems and care provision in rural areas. Ubiquity Press 2018-07-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6128041/ /pubmed/30202396 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ijic.3353 Text en Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Integrated Care Case
Mitterlechner, Matthias
Hollfelder, Céline
Koppenberg, Joachim
Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title_full Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title_fullStr Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title_full_unstemmed Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title_short Preserving Care Delivery in Hard-to-Serve Regions: A Case Study of a Population Health System in the Swiss Lower Engadin
title_sort preserving care delivery in hard-to-serve regions: a case study of a population health system in the swiss lower engadin
topic Integrated Care Case
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6128041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30202396
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ijic.3353
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