MUNROS · Health Care Reform: the iMpact on practice, oUtcomes and costs of New roles for health pROfeSsionals

The proposed research responds to the call for research into the ‘Quality, Efficiency and Solidarity of Health Systems’. European countries are reforming their health systems to improve health care delivery. One of the ways they are doing this is by changing skill mix within teams delivering health services: extending the roles of existing health professions and introducing new ones. This project will undertake a systematic evaluation of the impact of these ‘new professional roles’ on practice, outcomes and costs in a range of different health care settings within European Union and Associate Countries. It will detail the nature, scope and contribution of the new professional roles, evaluate their impact on clinical practice and outcomes, and identify their scope to improve the integration of care. It will conduct economic evaluation to identify the cost effectiveness of the new professional roles, identify optimal models for delivery of health care and the consequences of these for management of human resources and workforce planning. Study design is cross-sectional and multi-level. A mixed methods approach will combine analysis of routinely collected data and primary data generated through interviews and questionnaires to health professionals, managers and patients. Data analysis will employ multi-level modelling techniques.