we describe the restructuring that is taking place in primary health care ( phc ) in portugal and discuss how the new emerging organization and work practices reflect in care transitions and intra- and inter - organizational integration . phc represents an essential support for the restructuring that is taking place in health care in portugal . we conducted a case study on a health centre located in the centre region of portugal . health centres are reorganizing toward a new model characterized by an organizational structure based on functional units : family health unit ( fhu ) , community care unit ( ccu ) , and personalized healthcare unit ( phu ) , which will be in place in all of them plus transversal units , common to a group of these arrangements . the overarch management body is the aces ( agrupamento de centros de sade ) , that reports to a health regional administration ( hra ) . in portugal , there are five hra . an aces may coordinate a number of fhu , ccu and phu but has only one public health unit and one shared resources care unit . units are based on multidisciplinary teamwork , having : specific missions , although inter - cooperative and complementary , organized in a network ; administrative autonomy ; proper instruments of organizational management ; well - defined leadership and clinical governance systems and mechanisms of representation and participation of the community and citizens . it is too soon to assess the implications that the reorganization of phc might have in the integration of care in portugal .