Health networks. Contribution to health coverage and access

Abstract

From an approach that recovers the contributions of the Theory of Organizations and specialized literature in networks, the work describes and analyzes the health service networks that operate in Greater Buenos Aires (GBA). It puts the focus on the organizational structure that these initiatives show, while also exploring the mechanisms and devices they deploy to coordinate resources and services scattered throughout the territory. For the identification and survey of the health services networks in the GBA, a theoretical methodological instrument was applied. Subsequently, 22 interviews were made to the referents / coordinators. The reconstruction and analysis were completed by triangulating the empirical evidence collected with secondary sources of official health agencies. The networks studied reach different territorial scales and rely on pre-existing national or provincial health programs. In addition to medium and high complexity establishments belonging to the public subsector, they involve – in many cases – first-level care services; however, the organizational logic focuses on the hospital. Finally, there is a lack of instances, dynamics and resources formally destined to the functioning of the networks. This has implied a high commitment and a great effort on the part of the teams involved to manage them and, at the same time, it has translated into important limitations for their development and autonomy.