– The purpose of this article is to produce a taxonomy of organizational models of school health services (SHS) in the WHO European Region, and to reflect upon the potential of each model to be effective, equitable, responsive and efficient.
– The authors used data from the WHO survey to identify organizational models. To produce a taxonomy of organizational models, three features of SHS organization were analyzed – the presence of health personnel specifically dedicated to school health services provision (school nurse and/or school doctor); the statutory involvement of other health professions in SHS provision; and the proximity of service provision to pupils (school-based or not school-based).
– There are five organizational models of school health services in the Member States of the WHO European Region: dedicated school-based, dedicated community-based, integrated with primary care, mixed school-based, and mixed community-based. Preliminary reflections show that school based models are more likely to produce better outcomes in terms of effectiveness, equity, responsiveness, and efficiency.
– The WHO European Region has 53 Member States; the data are therefore incomplete and conclusions are limited to the 37 respondent countries.
– Knowledge on performance of various models of service provision may inform decision-makers in the process of reforms.
– This is the first attempt to produce a taxonomy of organizational models of school health services based on data from 37 countries, and to investigate the potential of each model to achieve desirable health system objectives.
