The contribution of health conferences and health regions to regional planning and management in health care: an overview at the federal states level

Abstract

Demands for increased health care coordination and cooperation have been raised for a long time in Germany. Over the past years, the public health services in the federal states have initiated networks at the regional level dealing with health-related topics, namely health conferences and health regions. In the areas of health promotion and prevention, health care services and nursing care sector, these networks make an important contribution to regional planning and management by setting up networks among relevant municipal players and developing a more comprehensive approach. This narrative review, worked out in collaboration with experts from the German federal states, aims to present an overview of the characteristics, key topics and results of health conferences and health regions. Furthermore, we describe differences and similarities between the approaches in the federal states as well as the respective supporting measures in the context of funding programmes and the legal basis. The results show that health conferences and health regions are established in a great number of administrative districts in the federal states. There have been many health conferences and health regions since years and, according to the evaluations, show positive impacts on regional cooperation across departmental, sectoral and professional boundaries. They deal with a wide range of topics related to local needs and problems aiming to use synergies and meet challenges in the regional provision of healthcare and prevention measures. Besides building network capacities, the assessment of local needs and the development of strategies, health conferences and health regions also initiate numerous local cooperation projects to improve the health of the population. Against the background of expected future challenges that will have to be faced by the public health services, we finally discuss the significance of regional planning and management functions of the public health services. We also we provide some recommendations related to the conditions for setting up health conferences and health regions and discuss their future development.