Fig. 2

Organisation of health care services participating in PaTH. HCC = home care cluster GP = general practitioner. All hospitals serve as general hospitals to the participating municipalities. Hospital III also has regional and university functions. Every municipality has one or more home care units with nurses and nursing assistants providing health and social care to inhabitants with reduced functional level. One home care cluster included one to three home care units in the same municipality. GPs usually work in group practices and operate independently of the home care services. Every inhabitant has a right of free choice of a regular GP, which implies that the GP may have patients in common with all home care units in the municipality. Larger municipalities have health care allocation offices with municipal case managers who do a broad assessment of patients in need of municipal health and social care services other than private physiotherapy and GP services. They have a purchaser role deciding on what kind of services to be provided