Hitting the TARGET in primary care:working towards integrated and person-centred care

Abstract

In line with the recently published ‘Integrated Care Agreement’ (Integraal Zorgakkoord in Dutch) in the Netherlands, the overarching aim of this dissertation was to help primary care to organise care in a person-centered and integrated way. In close interaction with care group Dokter Drenthe and health insurer Zilveren Kruis, the TARGET integrated care program was developed. TARGET provides innovative tools, trainings and insights that support professionals to work in a more person-centered way and strengthen their relations with other disciplines in health and social care. A first implementation of TARGET showed that it is feasible in daily practice. Moreover, both professionals and patients had positive experiences with TARGET: consultations focused more on positive aspects of health and professionals enjoyed their work more. Furthermore, this dissertation provides methodological inspiration to open the ‘black box’ of ‘why’ integrated care works (or not), using realist evaluation. A large-scale evaluation of TARGET is currently prepared