Karsten Vrangbæk
Biographic Data
| ID | 1731006 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karsten Vrangbæk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karsten |
| FAMILY NAME | Vrangbæk |
| SIGNATURE | VRANGBÆK K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5850-2367 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Policies and initiatives to facilitate timely discharge from hospitals: A comparison of six European countries
BACKGROUND: Timely discharge of patients who are clinically ready to be discharged from hospitals to the next point of care is a common health system challenge. Ensuring safe and effective discharge holds new urgency, given the backlogs and increased waiting times for inpatient services in many countries after the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to identify policy options for addressing delayed discharges in six European countries (…
Social inequality in health as a political topic in Denmark in the 21st century
This study traces the evolution of the '(in)equality in health' concept in parliament debates in Denmark from 1998 until 2024, exploring how the social determinants of health framework has been translated into policy discourse. We analyzed all parliament speeches employing the (in)equality in health concept between 1998 and 2024, and other significant documents of political intent during this period, including government platform papers, party pr…
The progressivity of health care revenue financing in 29 countries: A comparison
Primary prevention in hospitals in 20 high-income countries in Europe – A case of not “Making Every Contact Count”
Health care coverage and access for displaced persons from Ukraine: Assessing the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive across EU Member States
Can revenue collection for public funding in health care be progressive? An assessment of 29 Countries
We develop qualitative tools to assess the progressivity of public revenue collection. • The study includes 29 high-income countries. • Three sources of revenue are examined: income, social insurance, and consumption taxes. • One key finding was that countries with more progressive income tax system used more income-based tax brackets and exhibited larger differences in marginal tax rates between the brackets. • Another key finding was that the m…
Who continues to work after retirement age
These results are in line with the previous literature and suggest the importance of designing retirement policies that tailor the transition toward retirement according to specific characteristics of both the individual and the segment of occupation
Young adults’ perceptions of information on social distancing measures and everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic in Denmark and Sweden: An interview study
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Denmark and Sweden's governments and health authorities implemented social distancing measures as the main strategy to limit the spread of the coronavirus. In Denmark, these were mostly mandatory, whereas in Sweden they were primarily voluntarily based. The aim of this study was to explore how young adults in Denmark and Sweden retrieved and perceived information during the COVID-19 pandemic and what th…
Toward a Framework for Comparing Accountability Regimes in Healthcare
The debate on accountability within the public sector has been especially lively over the past decade. Significant progress has been made in developing conceptual frameworks and typologies for characterizing different features and functions of accountability. At the same time, however, there has been a lack of sector-specific adjustment of such frameworks. In this chapter we present a framework for analyzing accountability within healthcare. The …
Acceptability of restrictions in the Covid-19 pandemic: A population-based survey in Denmark and Sweden
Introduction: Denmark and Sweden initially adopted different responses to the COVID-19 pandemic although the two countries share many characteristics. Denmark responded swiftly with many mandatory restrictions. In contrast, Sweden relied on voluntary restrictions and a more "relaxed" response during the first wave of the pandemic. However, increased rates of COVID-19 cases led to a new approach that involved many more mandatory restrictions, thus…
Challenges facing mental health systems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from 14 European and North American countries
We assessed challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented for mental health systems and the responses to these challenges in 14 countries in Europe and North America. Experts from each country filled out a structured questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions between January and June 2021. We conducted thematic analysis to investigate the qualitative responses to open-ended questions, and we summarized the responses to closed-ended sur…
Health Policy – the best evidence for better policies
Nordic responses to Covid-19: Governance and policy measures in the early phases of the pandemic
This paper explores and compares health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, in the context of existing governance features. Content compiled in the Covid-19 Health System Response Monitor combined with other publicly available country information serve as the foundation for this analysis. The analysis mainly covers early response until August 2020, but includes some key policy and epidemiolog…
Balancing financial incentives during Covid-19: A comparison of provider payment adjustments across 20 countries
Equity of referrals to type 2 diabetes rehabilitation in a universal welfare state
Patients were more likely to be referred to municipal rehabilitation if they had low vs. high income (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87 [women], 1.64 [men]), were not employed vs. employed (HR 1.95 [women], 1.23 [men]) and were affiliated with GPs with a low vs. very high level of deprivation (HR 7.63 [women], 4.30 [men]). The results suggest that GPs practice proportionate universalism by allocating treatment to lower socioeconomic individuals in likely hi…
The role of self-efficacy, well-being capability and diabetes care assessment for emotional and diabetes management challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic: Findings from a follow-up study
This study aimed to investigate the potential protective role of baseline resources and capabilities for experiencing challenges to emotional well-being and perceived access to and quality of diabetes care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Danish type 2 diabetes population (N = 1608). We investigated how differences in self-efficacy, well-being capability, socioeconomic status, health status, and perceptions of diabetes care measured before the C…
Exploring equity in accessing diabetes management treatment: A healthcare gap analysis
Healthcare inequities are often investigated empirically as associations between socio-economic characteristics and differences between observed healthcare utilisation and estimates of needs-based utilisation. However, the concept of 'need' is tricky to operationalise and utilisation may be contingent on inequities arising at an earlier stage. In this study, we apply a unique combination of register and survey data collected in 2019 to assess equ…
Achieving higher performing primary care through patient registration: A review of twelve high-income countries
Social Distancing Policies in the Coronavirus Battle: A Comparison of Denmark and Sweden
Social distancing measures have been a key component in government strategies to mitigate COVID-19 globally. Based on official documents, this study aimed to identify, compare and analyse public social distancing policy measures adopted in Denmark and Sweden regarding the coronavirus from 1 March 2020 until 1 October 2020. A key difference was the greater emphasis on laws and executive orders (sticks) in Denmark, which allowed the country to adop…
Inter-Sectoral Collaboration in Municipal Health Centres: A Multi-Site Qualitative Study of Supporting Organizational Elements and Individual Drivers
The gap between policy visions and actual implementation efforts found in this study suggests that a more active and focused engagement from the political-administrative level is needed if the visions of increased inter-sectoral collaboration in health centres are to be realised
Volunteer association perceptions of municipal policy strategies to promote co-production of healthy ageing services
Civic society voluntary associations promote healthy ageing by increasing older adults’ social and physical activity levels and through the co-production of services aimed at other senior citizens. Local governments are increasingly interested in collaborating with such associations as a policy response to an expanding ageing population. Co-production requires a flexible, network-based governance approach, which has not been examined from the vol…
Is Contracting out of Public Services still the Great Panacea? A Systematic Review of Studies on Economic and Quality Effects from 2000 to 2014
This article presents the results of a systematic review of international studies on economic and quality effects of contracting out published in the period from 2000 to 2014. We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature and identified 49 relevant studies. There are three main findings of the systematic review: (1) cost savings documented in international contracting out literature have been decreasing over time; (2) cost savings have be…
Public/private ownership and quality of care: Evidence from Danish nursing homes
Co-location as a Driver for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration with General Practitioners as Coordinators: The Case of a Danish Municipal Health Centre
The issue of integrated care and inter-sectoral collaboration is on the health policy agenda in many countries. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the effects of the different policy instruments used to achieve this. This paper studies co-location as a driver for cross-sectoral collaboration with general practitioners (GPs) acting as coordinators in a municipal health centre. The purpose of the health centre, which is staffed by health profess…
The end of eastern territoriality? CJEU compliance in the new member states
Public Values and Public Service Motivation: Conceptual and Empirical Relationships
The literatures on public values (PV) and public service motivation (PSM) both address whether public service delivery is driven by something more than self-interest. They have developed separately, although they can benefit from insights developed by the other, and this article discusses conceptual and empirical relationships between them. Based on a survey of 501 public managers, we find that PSM and PV are associated empirically, but not in a …
The Europeanization of Health Care Governance: Implementing the Market Imperatives of Europe
The paper examines the Europeanization process and the impact of the European Union (EU) on national healthcare policies, using the example of Denmark. The analysis reveals that although health policy formally falls within the competence of member states, the impact of the EU is becoming increasingly conspicuous and has contributed to a gradual restructuring of healthcare boundaries as well as of some of its organizing principles. Furthermore, th…
Structural Reform in Denmark, 2007–09: Central Reform Processes in a Decentralised Environment
This paper investigates the policy process leading to the rapid and somewhat surprising introduction of a major structural reform in Denmark in 2007. The reform reduced the number of regional and local authorities and changed their responsibilities and financing. The research question is why a reform of this magnitude and scope was introduced in a Scandinavian country at this point in time in spite of previous failures and in spite of likely resi…
Advocacy coalitions and pharmacy policy in Denmark-Solid cores with fuzzy edges
Reform by Coincidence? Explaining the Policy Process of Structural Reform in Denmark
The article investigates the processes driving the ongoing Danish reform of the structure of the public sector with the purpose of understanding the factors rendering the reform possible at this particular juncture in time. For this reason, the article applies a theoretical framework consisting of John Kingdon's ‘Multiple Streams’ perspective combined with the Institutional Rational Choice approach developed by Fritz Scharpf, among others. As a h…
Transposition and National-Level Resources: Introducing the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive in Eastern Europe
Coordination between primary and secondary healthcare in Denmark and Sweden
Despite a variety of policy initiatives, lacking or poorly developed structures to support implementation function as barriers for coordination. The two cases illustrate that even in two relatively coherent health systems, with regional management of both the hospital and general practice sector, there are issues to resolve in regard to administrative and operational coordination. The interorganisational network literature can provide useful tool…
Accountability of immigration administration: Comparing crises in Norway, Denmark and Germany
Accountability can be conceptualized as institutionalized mechanisms obliging actors to explain their conduct to different forums, which can pose questions and impose sanctions. This article analyses different ‘crises’ in immigration policies in Norway, Denmark and Germany along a descriptive framework of five different accountability types: political, administrative, legal, professional and social accountability. The exchanges of information, de…
Organised Interests, Authority Structures and Political Influence: Danish and Norwegian Patient Groups Compared
The article presents a comparative analysis of the strategies applied by Danish and Norwegian patient organisations and organisations for disabled persons in order to promote the interests of their members. Three research questions are addressed: Are Danish and Norwegian patient organisations service organisations operating according to a ‘logic of membership’ or political pressure groups acting according to a ‘logic of influence’? Do patient org…
Public/private ownership and quality of care: Evidence from Danish nursing homes
Reshaping public accountability: Hospital reforms in Germany, Norway and Denmark
The article contributes to the literature on multi-level welfare governance and public accountability in the context of recent European hospital reforms. Focusing on the changing dynamics between regional and central governance of hospitals in Germany, Norway and Denmark, we raise concerns about the reshaping of traditional public accountability mechanisms. We argue that, triggered by growing financial pressures, corporatization and professionali…
Public Sector Value Congruence Among Old and New EU Member-States: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Estonia
What is the state of public service values in EU countries that have experienced similar yet far from identical administrative reforms? This article compares the findings of empirical studies on public sector values in three EU countries: the Netherlands, one of the founders of the EU and a member since 1951; Denmark, a member since 1973; and Estonia, a very new member that joined the EU in 2004 together with several other former Soviet countries…
Volunteer association perceptions of municipal policy strategies to promote co-production of healthy ageing services
Civic society voluntary associations promote healthy ageing by increasing older adults’ social and physical activity levels and through the co-production of services aimed at other senior citizens. Local governments are increasingly interested in collaborating with such associations as a policy response to an expanding ageing population. Co-production requires a flexible, network-based governance approach, which has not been examined from the vol…
Health care agreements as a tool for coordinating health and social services
There are substantial improvements with the new health agreements in terms of formalising a better coordination of the health care system
Exploring equity in accessing diabetes management treatment: A healthcare gap analysis
Healthcare inequities are often investigated empirically as associations between socio-economic characteristics and differences between observed healthcare utilisation and estimates of needs-based utilisation. However, the concept of 'need' is tricky to operationalise and utilisation may be contingent on inequities arising at an earlier stage. In this study, we apply a unique combination of register and survey data collected in 2019 to assess equ…
Co-location as a Driver for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration with General Practitioners as Coordinators: The Case of a Danish Municipal Health Centre
The issue of integrated care and inter-sectoral collaboration is on the health policy agenda in many countries. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the effects of the different policy instruments used to achieve this. This paper studies co-location as a driver for cross-sectoral collaboration with general practitioners (GPs) acting as coordinators in a municipal health centre. The purpose of the health centre, which is staffed by health profess…
The end of eastern territoriality? CJEU compliance in the new member states
Health Policy in Denmark: Leaving the Decentralized Welfare Path?
In this article, we investigate developments in Danish health care policy. After a short presentation of its historical roots, we focus on the decades after the administrative reform of 1970, which shaped the current decentralized public health care system. Theories of path dependency and institutional inertia are used to explain the relative stability in the overall structure, and theories of policy process and reform are used to discuss gradual…
Advocacy coalitions and pharmacy policy in Denmark-Solid cores with fuzzy edges
The Europeanization of Health Care Governance: Implementing the Market Imperatives of Europe
The paper examines the Europeanization process and the impact of the European Union (EU) on national healthcare policies, using the example of Denmark. The analysis reveals that although health policy formally falls within the competence of member states, the impact of the EU is becoming increasingly conspicuous and has contributed to a gradual restructuring of healthcare boundaries as well as of some of its organizing principles. Furthermore, th…
Reform by Coincidence? Explaining the Policy Process of Structural Reform in Denmark
The article investigates the processes driving the ongoing Danish reform of the structure of the public sector with the purpose of understanding the factors rendering the reform possible at this particular juncture in time. For this reason, the article applies a theoretical framework consisting of John Kingdon's ‘Multiple Streams’ perspective combined with the Institutional Rational Choice approach developed by Fritz Scharpf, among others. As a h…
Public Sector Value Congruence Among Old and New EU Member-States: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Estonia
What is the state of public service values in EU countries that have experienced similar yet far from identical administrative reforms? This article compares the findings of empirical studies on public sector values in three EU countries: the Netherlands, one of the founders of the EU and a member since 1951; Denmark, a member since 1973; and Estonia, a very new member that joined the EU in 2004 together with several other former Soviet countries…
Coordination between primary and secondary healthcare in Denmark and Sweden
Despite a variety of policy initiatives, lacking or poorly developed structures to support implementation function as barriers for coordination. The two cases illustrate that even in two relatively coherent health systems, with regional management of both the hospital and general practice sector, there are issues to resolve in regard to administrative and operational coordination. The interorganisational network literature can provide useful tool…
Structural Reform in Denmark, 2007–09: Central Reform Processes in a Decentralised Environment
This paper investigates the policy process leading to the rapid and somewhat surprising introduction of a major structural reform in Denmark in 2007. The reform reduced the number of regional and local authorities and changed their responsibilities and financing. The research question is why a reform of this magnitude and scope was introduced in a Scandinavian country at this point in time in spite of previous failures and in spite of likely resi…
Public Values and Public Service Motivation: Conceptual and Empirical Relationships
The literatures on public values (PV) and public service motivation (PSM) both address whether public service delivery is driven by something more than self-interest. They have developed separately, although they can benefit from insights developed by the other, and this article discusses conceptual and empirical relationships between them. Based on a survey of 501 public managers, we find that PSM and PV are associated empirically, but not in a …
Organised Interests, Authority Structures and Political Influence: Danish and Norwegian Patient Groups Compared
The article presents a comparative analysis of the strategies applied by Danish and Norwegian patient organisations and organisations for disabled persons in order to promote the interests of their members. Three research questions are addressed: Are Danish and Norwegian patient organisations service organisations operating according to a ‘logic of membership’ or political pressure groups acting according to a ‘logic of influence’? Do patient org…
Accountability of immigration administration: Comparing crises in Norway, Denmark and Germany
Accountability can be conceptualized as institutionalized mechanisms obliging actors to explain their conduct to different forums, which can pose questions and impose sanctions. This article analyses different ‘crises’ in immigration policies in Norway, Denmark and Germany along a descriptive framework of five different accountability types: political, administrative, legal, professional and social accountability. The exchanges of information, de…
Reshaping public accountability: Hospital reforms in Germany, Norway and Denmark
The article contributes to the literature on multi-level welfare governance and public accountability in the context of recent European hospital reforms. Focusing on the changing dynamics between regional and central governance of hospitals in Germany, Norway and Denmark, we raise concerns about the reshaping of traditional public accountability mechanisms. We argue that, triggered by growing financial pressures, corporatization and professionali…
Health care agreements as a tool for coordinating health and social services
There are substantial improvements with the new health agreements in terms of formalising a better coordination of the health care system
Transposition and National-Level Resources: Introducing the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive in Eastern Europe
Co-location as a Driver for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration with General Practitioners as Coordinators: The Case of a Danish Municipal Health Centre
The issue of integrated care and inter-sectoral collaboration is on the health policy agenda in many countries. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the effects of the different policy instruments used to achieve this. This paper studies co-location as a driver for cross-sectoral collaboration with general practitioners (GPs) acting as coordinators in a municipal health centre. The purpose of the health centre, which is staffed by health profess…
The end of eastern territoriality? CJEU compliance in the new member states
Is Contracting out of Public Services still the Great Panacea? A Systematic Review of Studies on Economic and Quality Effects from 2000 to 2014
This article presents the results of a systematic review of international studies on economic and quality effects of contracting out published in the period from 2000 to 2014. We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature and identified 49 relevant studies. There are three main findings of the systematic review: (1) cost savings documented in international contracting out literature have been decreasing over time; (2) cost savings have be…
Public/private ownership and quality of care: Evidence from Danish nursing homes
Inter-Sectoral Collaboration in Municipal Health Centres: A Multi-Site Qualitative Study of Supporting Organizational Elements and Individual Drivers
The gap between policy visions and actual implementation efforts found in this study suggests that a more active and focused engagement from the political-administrative level is needed if the visions of increased inter-sectoral collaboration in health centres are to be realised
Volunteer association perceptions of municipal policy strategies to promote co-production of healthy ageing services
Civic society voluntary associations promote healthy ageing by increasing older adults’ social and physical activity levels and through the co-production of services aimed at other senior citizens. Local governments are increasingly interested in collaborating with such associations as a policy response to an expanding ageing population. Co-production requires a flexible, network-based governance approach, which has not been examined from the vol…
Achieving higher performing primary care through patient registration: A review of twelve high-income countries
Social Distancing Policies in the Coronavirus Battle: A Comparison of Denmark and Sweden
Social distancing measures have been a key component in government strategies to mitigate COVID-19 globally. Based on official documents, this study aimed to identify, compare and analyse public social distancing policy measures adopted in Denmark and Sweden regarding the coronavirus from 1 March 2020 until 1 October 2020. A key difference was the greater emphasis on laws and executive orders (sticks) in Denmark, which allowed the country to adop…
Nordic responses to Covid-19: Governance and policy measures in the early phases of the pandemic
This paper explores and compares health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, in the context of existing governance features. Content compiled in the Covid-19 Health System Response Monitor combined with other publicly available country information serve as the foundation for this analysis. The analysis mainly covers early response until August 2020, but includes some key policy and epidemiolog…
Balancing financial incentives during Covid-19: A comparison of provider payment adjustments across 20 countries
Equity of referrals to type 2 diabetes rehabilitation in a universal welfare state
Patients were more likely to be referred to municipal rehabilitation if they had low vs. high income (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87 [women], 1.64 [men]), were not employed vs. employed (HR 1.95 [women], 1.23 [men]) and were affiliated with GPs with a low vs. very high level of deprivation (HR 7.63 [women], 4.30 [men]). The results suggest that GPs practice proportionate universalism by allocating treatment to lower socioeconomic individuals in likely hi…
The role of self-efficacy, well-being capability and diabetes care assessment for emotional and diabetes management challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic: Findings from a follow-up study
This study aimed to investigate the potential protective role of baseline resources and capabilities for experiencing challenges to emotional well-being and perceived access to and quality of diabetes care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Danish type 2 diabetes population (N = 1608). We investigated how differences in self-efficacy, well-being capability, socioeconomic status, health status, and perceptions of diabetes care measured before the C…
Political science (26 works) · Business (20 works) · Economics (20 works) · Medicine (17 works) · Health care (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Public Administration (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Primary Care and Health Outcomes (10 works)