How did New Zealand's regional District Health Board groupings work to improve service integration and health outcomes: a realist evaluation.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), integration across the healthcare continuum has been a key approach to strengthening the health system and improving health outcomes. A key example has been four regional District Health Board (DHB) groupings, which, from 2011 to 2022, required the country's 20 DHBs to work together regionally. This research explores how this initiative functioned, examining how, for whom and in what circumstances regional DHB groupings worked to deliver improvements in system integration and health outcomes and equity.

Design

We used a realist-informed evaluation study design. We used documentary analysis to develop programme logic models to describe the context, structure, capabilities, implementation activities and impact of each of the four region

SUBMITTER: Penno E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10729044 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature