van Staalduinen Dorine J, van den Bekerom Petra E A, Groeneveld Sandra M, Stiggelbout Anne M, van den Akker-van Marle M Elske
Health Care Manage Rev. 2025;50(2):130-139. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000437. Epub 2025 Jan 30.
An important aspect of value-based health care is providing care in an integrated practice unit (IPU). In an IPU, the full cycle of care for a specific medical condition is delivered through collaboration among professionals with diverse functional backgrounds. Although the proposed functioning of an IPU in the literature on value-based health care is based on assumptions about leadership, the role of leadership in the context of IPUs is overlooked in empirical studies.
Drawing on previous studies on shared leadership in other organizational contexts, this paper explores the role of formal leadership in the emergence of shared leadership in IPUs.
METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: To this end, we carried out a qualitative study in four IPUs in the Netherlands with differing formal leadership structures.
RESULTS/CONCLUSION: We found that, in an IPU, leadership is mainly exhibited by those in formal leadership positions. It also appeared that having one versus multiple formal leaders can influence the opportunities for other IPU members to demonstrate leadership and the extent to which IPU members feel the need to exercise leadership in IPUs.
We encourage staff managers and IPU members to define clear roles for leaders and establish a structured strategy for sharing information and resources, such as communication channels and regular feedback loops.
基于价值的医疗保健的一个重要方面是在综合实践单元（IPU）中提供护理。在一个IPU中，针对特定医疗状况的完整护理周期是通过具有不同职能背景的专业人员之间的协作来实现的。尽管在基于价值的医疗保健文献中所提出的IPU运作是基于对领导力的假设，但在实证研究中，领导力在IPU背景下的作用却被忽视了。
借鉴先前在其他组织背景下关于共享领导力的研究，本文探讨正式领导力在IPU中共享领导力出现过程中的作用。
方法/途径：为此，我们在荷兰的四个具有不同正式领导结构的IPU中开展了一项定性研究。
结果/结论：我们发现，在一个IPU中，领导力主要由担任正式领导职位的人展现出来。此外，有一位正式领导者与有多位正式领导者似乎会影响其他IPU成员展现领导力的机会，以及IPU成员在IPU中感到有必要行使领导力的程度。
我们鼓励员工管理者和IPU成员为领导者明确角色，并建立一个共享信息和资源的结构化策略，如沟通渠道和定期反馈循环。
