Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set the context for this special issue and provide an introduction to the individual contributions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a literature survey and analysis. Findings – Integration remains both a central goal and a field of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the claims made for the clinical microsystems approach of healthcare improvement within an English NHS context. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted a Realistic Evaluation approach to examine a series of pilot clinical...

Purpose – Australian states have embraced clinical networking as a mechanism for managing, organising and improving the quality of care. Using these individualised state approaches to clinical networks, in this paper the authors aim to examine this Australasian “experimentation” and...

Purpose – This article aims to explore how objects function in integration efforts in health and social care contexts. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on boundary object theory and empirical data collected from a range of health and social care integration initiatives in...

Purpose – Health service organizations and professionals are under increasing pressure to work together to deliver integrated patient care. A common understanding of integration strategies may facilitate the delivery of integrated care across inter‐organizational and inter‐professional...

Purpose – There has been considerable effort in recent years to link and integrate professional services more closely for patients with comorbidities. However, difficulties persist, especially at the clinical level. This study aims to shed light on these difficulties by examining the process...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to highlight the significance of integrated governance in bringing about community participation, improved service delivery, accountability of public systems and human resource rationalisation. It discusses the strategies of innovative institutional...

Purpose – A Swedish framework law has enabled integration between public agencies in vocational rehabilitation. With the support of this law, coordination associations can be formed to fund and organize joint activities. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the law has been...