Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries
Objectives: In this paper, integrated care in an inter-organisational cooperative setting of in-home elderly care is studied. The aim is to explore how home care workers coordinate their daily work, identify coordination issues in situ and discuss possible actions for supporting seamless and integra...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2009-07-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Integrated Care |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/article/view/325 |
| _version_ | 1818129512577105920 |
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| author | Alexandra Petrakou |
| author_facet | Alexandra Petrakou |
| author_sort | Alexandra Petrakou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives: In this paper, integrated care in an inter-organisational cooperative setting of in-home elderly care is studied. The aim is to explore how home care workers coordinate their daily work, identify coordination issues in situ and discuss possible actions for supporting seamless and integrated elderly care at home. <br><br> Method: The empirical findings are drawn from an ethnographic workplace study of the cooperation and coordination taking place between home care workers in a Swedish county. Data were collected through observational studies, interviews and group discussions. <br><br> Findings: The paper identifies a need to support two core issues. Firstly, it must be made clear how the care interventions that are currently defined as ‘self-treatment’ by the home health care should be divided. Secondly, the distributed and asynchronous coordination between all care workers involved, regardless of organisational belonging must be better supported. <br><br> Conclusion: Integrated care needs to be developed between organisations as well as within each organisation. As a matter of fact, integrated care needs to be built up beyond organisational boundaries. Organisational boundaries affect the planning of the division of care interventions, but not the coordination during the home care process. During the home care process, the main challenge is the coordination difficulties that arise from the fact that workers are distributed in time and/or space, regardless of organisational belonging. A core subject for future practice and research is to develop IT tools that reach beyond formal organisational boundaries and processes while remaining adaptable in view of future structure changes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:50:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-387b6cc62bd14e54886d8f47fc258440 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1568-4156 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T07:50:20Z |
| publishDate | 2009-07-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Integrated Care |
| spelling | doaj.art-387b6cc62bd14e54886d8f47fc2584402022-12-22T01:15:21ZengUbiquity PressInternational Journal of Integrated Care1568-41562009-07-0193325Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundariesAlexandra PetrakouObjectives: In this paper, integrated care in an inter-organisational cooperative setting of in-home elderly care is studied. The aim is to explore how home care workers coordinate their daily work, identify coordination issues in situ and discuss possible actions for supporting seamless and integrated elderly care at home. <br><br> Method: The empirical findings are drawn from an ethnographic workplace study of the cooperation and coordination taking place between home care workers in a Swedish county. Data were collected through observational studies, interviews and group discussions. <br><br> Findings: The paper identifies a need to support two core issues. Firstly, it must be made clear how the care interventions that are currently defined as ‘self-treatment’ by the home health care should be divided. Secondly, the distributed and asynchronous coordination between all care workers involved, regardless of organisational belonging must be better supported. <br><br> Conclusion: Integrated care needs to be developed between organisations as well as within each organisation. As a matter of fact, integrated care needs to be built up beyond organisational boundaries. Organisational boundaries affect the planning of the division of care interventions, but not the coordination during the home care process. During the home care process, the main challenge is the coordination difficulties that arise from the fact that workers are distributed in time and/or space, regardless of organisational belonging. A core subject for future practice and research is to develop IT tools that reach beyond formal organisational boundaries and processes while remaining adaptable in view of future structure changes.http://www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/article/view/325integrated carecooperative workcoordinationhome carehome health carehome help service |
| spellingShingle | Alexandra Petrakou Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries International Journal of Integrated Care integrated care cooperative work coordination home care home health care home help service |
| title | Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| title_full | Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| title_fullStr | Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| title_short | Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| title_sort | integrated care in the daily work coordination beyond organisational boundaries |
| topic | integrated care cooperative work coordination home care home health care home help service |
| url | http://www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/article/view/325 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alexandrapetrakou integratedcareinthedailyworkcoordinationbeyondorganisationalboundaries |