Secondary care clinic for chronic disease: protocol

The complexity of chronic disease management activities and the associated financial burden have prompted the development of organizational models, based on the integration of care and services, which rely on primary care services. However, since the institutions providing these services are continually undergoing reorganization, the Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec wanted to innovate by adapting the Chronic Care Model to create a clinic for the integrated follow-up of chronic disease that relies on hospital-based specialty care.

The aim of the study is to follow the project in order to contribute to knowledge about the way in which professional and management practices are organized to ensure better care coordination and the successful integration of the various follow-ups implemented.

The research strategy adopted is based on the longitudinal comparative case study with embedded units of analysis. The case study uses a mixed research method.

We are currently in the analysis phase of the project. The results will be available in 2015.

The project's originality lies in its consideration of the macro, meso, and micro contexts structuring the creation of the clinic in order to ensure the integration process is successful and to allow a theoretical generalization of the reorganization of practices to be developed.