title: Health services delivery networks: what do we know and where should we be headed?
abstract: Networks of collaborating organizations have become critical mechanisms for the effective delivery of healthcare and related human services. Despite their importance, there is much about health networks that is not understood. The article by Huerta, Casebeer and VanderPlaat is an effort to discuss the importance of health services delivery networks and to point out ways in which such networks might best be studied. Their article offers a number of useful and interesting ideas for both practice and research. Many of these ideas are not, however, well organized, integrated or fully developed. This commentary provides a critique of their work, while offering some of our own suggestions about how the study of health delivery networks might be advanced.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Administration and Policy, University of Arizona, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Keith G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Provan
authors.forename: H Brinton
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Milward
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D019058:Community Networks / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration*; D036262:Empirical Research; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care