[Governance of health care networks: assessment of the health care integrating councils in the context of the health sector reform in Chile].
OBJECTIVE
. This paper aims at assessing the contribution of Chile's Health Care Integrating Councils (CIRA, Spanish acronym) to strengthening governance in health.


METHODS
A literature review on the official documents related to the process of creation and development of CIRA was carried out; an ad hoc questionnaire was applied to all 29 health services of the country; finally, 35 semi-structure in-depth interviews were carried on a sample of six CIRA.


RESULTS
The CIRAs have become a tool for functional integration and a valuable space for dialogue, cooperation and learning for all of the actors of the Chilean public health network.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, we conclude that there is room for improvements of CIRA's role regarding governance of the health care network as long as CIRA is authorized to deal with strategic topics, such as investment in infrastructure, technology and human resources, and budgeting.
Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Organización Mundial de la Salud, México.
Osvaldo
O
Artaza-Barrios
Escuela de Salud Pública, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Olga
O
Toro-Devia
Escuela de Salud Pública, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Alejandra
A
Fuentes-García
Escuela de Salud Pública, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Alex
A
Alarcón-Hein
Escuela de Salud Pública, Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, oarteaga@med.uchile.cl.
Oscar
O
Arteaga-Herrera
D002677:Chile; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans