3. PARTNER IN NETWORKS To achieve our aims with regard to specialisation and targeted innovation, we cooperate with prominent partners in the Netherlands and internationally. Such alliances support our ongoing development in the area of tertiary referral care. We take the lead as an academic driver in regional cooperation and networking, leading to social and economic valorisation. Healthcare is shifting more to the patient’s immediate surroundings, making it a shared responsibility. We increasingly participate in transmural and regional networks and take steps to set them up, so that every patient can count on having the right care in the right place, provided by the right professional at the right time. Patients see different healthcare professionals for different aspects of their treatment. Maastricht UMC+ is concentrating more than ever on its role in academia and tertiary referral care. It serves as a regional knowledge hub in a network whose membership is based on the complementarity, diversity and interdependence of the participants. In spring 2019, the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) drew up a plan entitled ‘Research and innovation with and for the healthy region’. Its aim is to ensure that university medical centres, as regional academic drivers, set up networks for a healthy region. In these networks, they cooperate with the public, patients, private parties and healthcare and knowledge institutions on innovation. The first step is to explore the most urgent issues facing the region and then develop a regional knowledge and innovation agenda for healthy living and healthcare. Maastricht UMC+ conducts research on new care models and for years it has been actively involved in collaboration and network building. A brief explanation of each type of collaboration is given below. COOPERATION IN THE CITY AND THE REGION Maastricht UMC+ is the only university hospital that also operates as a hospital for the city and the region. In Maastricht Heuvelland, there is also close cooperation with GPs (Care in Development; Dutch abbreviation ZIO), as a result of which an intensive intermediate care network has been created at the interface between primary and secondary care. For decades we have been working on improving patient care and creating relationships between the primary and secondary care partners who make this possible. This cooperation has taken many different forms (Diagnostic Centre, carousel of shared consultations, ‘short loop’ outpatient clinics, etc.) and it is also the breeding ground for the ‘Blauwe Zorg’ project, one of the initiatives of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to promote sustainability within the Dutch healthcare system. Maastricht UMC+ and ZIO collaborate in the Stichting Beter Samen Better Together Foundation, which aims to develop activities to ensure the sustainability of the range of care options offered in the region, with partners providing intermediate healthcare at the ‘Stadspoli’ outpatient clinics. INTERMEDIATE CARE HAS POSITIVE RESULTS A fall in the costs of care per patient, shorter waiting times and an increase in patient satisfaction – all without negative consequences for health. These are the key results of a multi year trial in South Limburg of an alternative to normal hospital care called intermediate care. In this case an intensive collaboration between GPs and medical specialists in special centres outside the walls of the hospital. Examples are the two ‘Stadpoli's’ in Maastricht, where medical specialists of Maastricht UMC+ see the patient and give advice on treatment to the GP, who is in charge of the patient’s care. However, the research does not shed light on the effect this has on the number of patients in the hospital. 42 Healthy Living 2025
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