Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (GHC) is a not-for-profit, group model, consumer governed health maintenance organisation (HMO). GHC serves over 450 000 enrollees at 29 medical centres, two hospitals, and three specialty centres in the state of Washington, primarily in the Puget Sound area. The cooperative employs 900 physicians, more than 40% of whom are primary care providers. GHC reo...

Background. Primary healthcare (PHC) renewal gives rise to important challenges for policy makers, managers, and researchers in most countries. Evaluating new emerging forms of organizations is therefore of prime importance in assessing the impact of these policies. This paper presents a set of methods related to the configurational approach and an organizational taxonomy derived from our analy...

Aim We report on a formative project to develop an organization-level planning framework for obesity prevention and management services. BACKGROUND It is common when developing new services to first develop a logic model outlining expected outcomes and key processes. This can be onerous for single primary care organizations, especially for complex conditions like obesity. METHODS The initia...

In the UK, policy changes in primary health care research and development have led to the establishment of primary care research networks. These organizations aim to increase research culture, capacity and evidence base in primary care. As publicly funded bodies, these networks need to be accountable. Organizational science has studied network organizations including why and how they develop an...

OBJECTIVES The extensive use of complementary and alternative medicine for patients can complicate dialogue between physicians and complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, but not much data have been collected on the expectations and attitudes of physicians and complementary and alternative medicine practitioners concerning their communication and collaboration. In this study, we c...

An important goal of the Affordable Care Act is to transform the US health care system from one characterized by high costs, poor quality, and fragmented care to one focused on comprehensive, coordinated, and efficient care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to meet this goal primarily through efforts to strengthen primary care and to introduce innovative new payment...

BACKGROUND Physicians naturally form networks. Networks could form a rational basis for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) for defined populations of Medicare beneficiaries. OBJECTIVES To use methods from network science to identify naturally occurring networks of physicians that might be best suited to becoming ACOs. RESEARCH DESIGN, SUBJECTS, AND MEASURES Using nationally representativ...