How do primary care providers work together in the Iranian PHC system?

Providing coordinated services and forming appropriate cooperation among the members of the health team have a significant impact on other aspects of service provision, including accessibility and continuity of services.

In this study information was obtained from a national study titled, "Evaluation of Primary Health Care in Iran", and framework analysis was conducted from the perspective of interprofessional cooperation status using the Amour model based on 5 underlying concepts of sharing, partnership, power, interdependency, and process. This is a mixed-method study of the transformative sequential type. In this study triangulation method was used, and data were collected by the Primary Care Evaluation Tool (PCET), interviewing experts and executive directors, and systematic review of the Primary Health Care (PHC) challenges in Iran.

The challenges of the PHC system in Iran are analyzed for providing coordinated care in the form of multidisciplinary teamwork based on the Amour model. The corresponding solutions for improving challenges of the concept are also presented.

Based on the findings of this study the followings are suggested: sharing a collective specialized outlook; designing an integrated information system; improving the educational system through providing on-the-need academic education; strengthening the cooperation of community representatives and peoplechr('39')s trustees in providing care; developing interdepartmental partnerships with related organizations with collective interests; moderating the workload of human resources; using electronic health records and automated referral of individuals in addition to appropriate training and promoting the culture from the existing philosophy of primary health care; highlighting the role of service providers as members of the care team; eliminating factors causing instability of suppliers, plans, and programs; and stability in the management approach despite changes in senior management.