Complex problems demand complex solutions – governance, diffusion and implementation of multidisciplinary teams for elderly with complex needs

A transfer of resources and efforts to care closer to patients is necessary to meet existing and future challenges with an increasing proportion of elderly with complex needs in Sweden.

Person-centred care close to elderly with complex needs does not primarily involve the introduction of new actors, but rather improved coordination and collaboration of services between municipalities and region in multidisciplinary teams. However, multidisciplinary teams can be described as a complex intervention which is difficult to standardise.

It spans across organisational borders, involves co-workers with different professional backgrounds and the implementation and outcomes of the intervention will depend on specific needs of the patient as well as conditions in the local context.

Such conditions may facilitate or hinder the change behaviour needed for a successful adoption and implementation of interprofessional care.The purpose of the project is to contribute with new empirical and theoretical knowledge about approaches to governance and management of, and facilitators and barriers to, the adoption and implementation of multidisciplinary teams for elderly with complex needs in Sweden.

We will explore how multidisciplinary teams can be adopted and implemented, which factors facilitate and hinder person-centred interprofessional care and how different approaches to governance and management may help balance support to change behaviour and professional autonomy with person-centeredness, quality and equity in the distribution and content of this complex intervention.

The project will be carried out in close collaboration with decision makers, managers and health care professionals in regional and municipal primary care.

We will use a mixed methods approach to contribute with knowledge about both overall relationships and patters in the adoption and implementation and a deeper understanding of what might explain such patterns.