Interdisciplinary collaboration between primary care, social insurance and social services in the rehabilitation of people with musculoskeletal disorder: effects on self-rated health and physical performance.

Previous research shows there can be good results from co-financing between welfare sectors on the perceived quality of interprofessional collaboration. However, little is known about the impact on patient outcome of such schemes. This study aimed to assess whether co-financed teams with personnel from primary care, social insurance and social services have any effect on patients' health status. A comparative study of patients attending health care centres with and without a co-financed collaboration model was carried out. Although research has shown positive results from co-financed collaboration on staff and organization, we could not find that this new interdisciplinary team structure gave a better patient health outcome than conventional care.