title: Secondary care clinic for chronic disease: protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The complexity of chronic disease management activities and the associated financial burden have prompted the development of organizational models, based on the integration of care and services, which rely on primary care services. However, since the institutions providing these services are continually undergoing reorganization, the Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec wanted to innovate by adapting the Chronic Care Model to create a clinic for the integrated follow-up of chronic disease that relies on hospital-based specialty care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study is to follow the project in order to contribute to knowledge about the way in which professional and management practices are organized to ensure better care coordination and the successful integration of the various follow-ups implemented.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research strategy adopted is based on the longitudinal comparative case study with embedded units of analysis. The case study uses a mixed research method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We are currently in the analysis phase of the project. The results will be available in 2015.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The project's originality lies in its consideration of the macro, meso, and micro contexts structuring the creation of the clinic in order to ensure the integration process is successful and to allow a theoretical generalization of the reorganization of practices to be developed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada. clemence.dallaire@fsi.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Clémence
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3170-5671
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dallaire
authors.forename: Michèle
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2085-8568
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: St-Pierre
authors.forename: Lucille
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7691-1228
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Juneau
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3088-5105
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Legault-Mercier
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1321-8562
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bernardino
keywords: ambulatory care; chronic disease; delivery of health care; integrated; models; research design; secondary care; tertiary health care; theoretical