This research aims to contribute to the development of theory regarding inter-organizational designs for these care-cure conditions through a combination of case study research and simulation. The case setting chosen is that of perinatal care in the Netherlands. The research consists of three phases and combines both qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods approach). The first phase focuses on what goes wrong in Dutch perinatal care (what-question). The second phase focuses on understanding why it is going wrong (why-question). The third phase focuses on gaining insight into how Dutch perinatal care can be improved, on what inter-organizational design would work best for Dutch perinatal care (how-question). As such, this research combines three layers of a healthcare system: firstly, the structure of the system, the inter-organizational design, secondly, the inter-organizational dynamics, such as collaboration and trust between organizations and professionals, and thirdly, the flow of patients between organizations.