Organisational Networks in Healthcare - Theory and Analysis

Overview

Healthcare is currently faced with a myriad of issues. An aging population requires more complex healthcare provision. This increased complexity challenges the affordability, accessibility and quality of healthcare. As a response, more collaboration is required within and between healthcare organizations. To strategize a network for success, it is necessary to know about strategy for healthcare networks and how to form an effective mode of governance. In this course you will learn about strategy and governance in networks and will design social science research on healthcare networks. You will gain rich insights into the collaboration in intra- and interorganizational networks.

Indeed, policymakers increasingly urge organizations to form collaborative networks to solve the complexities related to these developments in healthcare. However, it is difficult for policymakers to monitor the quality and functioning of these collaborative networks. This is problematic because these collaborative networks often do not achieve their goals.

A certain form of governance is necessary to align goals, stimulate activities, and prevent or solve conflicts. But what form of governance is most fitting under what conditions? And how do governance and structure affect collaboration. To strategize a network for success, it is necessary to know about the strategy for healthcare networks and how to form an effective mode of governance.

This course teaches skills in R and RStudio, concerning the packages xUcinet and iGraph for analysis and visualization of organizational networks in healthcare. 

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to: 

• Understand current theories (and their history) on strategy in networks;
• Design a social science research approach to collect (e.g. observation, interviews or surveys), analyze and report data on healthcare networks;
• Assess bottlenecks in the functioning of a network, related to its network structure, based on reflection with scientific theories;
• Apply organizational theory on networks and collaboration in a healthcare context.