Financial barriers decrease the benefits of interprofessional collaboration within integrated care programs: Results of a nationwide survey

Nowadays, chronic diseases and multimorbidity represent considerable burdens and challenges for communities, healthcare systems and individuals. For more than two decades, integrated care initiatives have been considered and implemented throughout Europe and North America as a mean to overcome those challenges [1–4]. Albeit no consensual definition for integrated care exists [2], many of these initiatives share the following characteristics: patient-centred, promoting patient self-management and autonomy, and based on formal evidence of effectiveness [2]. Moreover, these initiatives aim at restructuring healthcare systems, organisations and services to foster care continuity, coordination, integration, and efficiency [5]. Integrated care initiatives are expected to foster collaboration between various professions [5]; therefore, the involvement of interprofessional teams should represent a key element in such initiatives [6]. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs: