Högskolan i Skövde

In this paper we discuss the fact that more and more patients are treated in their homes instead of in a hospital, and by a whole set of organizations, sometimes with different ownership, and how this fact places new and heavy demands on health care and home service staff to communicate and to collaborate. We further discuss the need for communication and collaboration on both managerial and operational levels. In particular we point to the need for managers in different organizations to agree on ways of communicating and collaborating on the operational level and how this aspect has to be taken into account already during procurement of home care services. We finally give a brief account of IT support for collaboration and coordination that may help to improving the situation.