Inter-Sectoral Collaboration in Municipal Health Centres: A Multi-Site Qualitative Study of Supporting Organizational Elements and Individual Drivers

INTRODUCTION: Community health centres accommodating different professional groups are expected to improve inter-sectoral collaboration between primary care providers. This study aimed to identify what has been done to support inter-sectoral collaboration between municipal professionals and general practitioners in health centres, and to explore the interactions that emerge between these professionals at the operational level. METHODS: The study was a multi-site qualitative study carried out in four municipal health centres in a Danish region. The study was based on documents and qualitative interviews with general practitioners, and municipal professionals and administrators in each of the health centres. A content analysis was conducted. RESULTS: The study found that little attention had been given to the organizational prerequisites for enhanced inter-sectoral collaboration in the health centres. Even though some health centres had employed coordinators, these did not play a significant role as facilitators of collaboration partly due to a lack of political and managerial attention. At the operational level, inter-sectoral collaboration was limited to ad hoc interactions between professionals. Although these interactions could be useful, they did not evolve into more systematic forms of collaboration. CONCLUSION: The gap between policy visions and actual implementation efforts found in this study suggests that a more active and focused engagement from the political-administrative level is needed if the visions of increased inter-sectoral collaboration in health centres are to be realised.