Primary Care and Public Health Services Integration in Brazil’s Unified Health System

Objectives: We examined associations between transdisciplinary collaboration, evidence-based practice, and primary care and public health services integration in Brazil’s Family Health Strategy. We aimed to identify practices that facilitate service integration and evidence-based practice.

Methods: We collected cross-sectional data from community health workers, nurses, and physicians (n = 262). We used structural equation modeling to assess providers’ service integration and evidence-based practice engagement operationalized as latent factors. Predictors included endorsement of team meetings, access to and consultations with colleagues, familiarity with community, and previous research experience.

Results: Providers’ familiarity with community and team meetings positively influenced evidence-based practice engagement and service integration. More experienced providers reported more integration and engagement. Physicians reported less integration than did community health workers. Black providers reported less evidence-based practice engagement than did Pardo (mixed races) providers. After accounting for all variables, evidencebased practice engagement and service integration were moderately correlated.

Conclusions: Age and race ...

Physical and mental health: a new frontier for integrated care.

Traditionally, integrated care has been focused on closing the gaps between social and health care. Nevertheless, integrating mental and physical care should also be seen as a way to develop integrated care. In this report published by the King’s Fund, this topic is addressed, describing the current situation of mental and physical care and identifying ten areas where this kind of integration would be most needed:

1. Incorporating mental health into public health programmes.

2. Promoting health among people with severe mental illness.

3. Improving management of medically unexplained symptoms in primary care.

4. Strengthening primary care for the physical health needs of people with severe mental illnesses.

5. Supporting the mental health for people with long-term conditions.

6. Supporting the mental health and wellbeing for carers.

7. Supporting mental health in acute hospitals.

8. Addressing physical health in mental health inpatient facilities.

9. Providing integrated support for perinatal mental health.

10. Supporting the mental health needs of people ...

Can hospital services work in primary care settings?

In this post, the author analyzes how recent changes in primary care in the National Health Services could face the purpose of moving some services from hospital to primary care settings.

The author bases her discussion on a report published by RAND corporation (“Outpatient Services and Primary Care”) that identifies five main areas to be considered when moving services from hospital to primary care:

1. Transfer: The substitution of services delivered by specialists for services delivered by primary care clinicians.
2. Relocation: Shifting the venue of specialist care from hospitals to primary care settings.
3. Liaison: Joint working between specialists and primary care clinicians to provide care to individual patients.
4. Professional behaviour change: Changing the way GPs refer patients to specialists.
5. Patient behaviour change: Helping patients make informed decisions about their care.

There is not a unique way of moving these services; many studies suggest that patients’ satisfaction usually grows when services are ...

Understanding the role of community hospitals: an analysis of experiences in five countries

A policy focus on moving heathcare closer to people´s homes has led to renewed interest in community hospitals and their potential role in delivering more integrated care at local level, but models and approaches differ across countries. 

This study explores the policy drivers behind the implementation or advancement of these models; their function and role within the wider system of service provision; and the degree to which community hospitals contribute to enhanced integration of service delivery and benefit the population. 

Understanding new models of integrated care in developed countries: a systematic review

The NHS has been challenged to adopt new integrated models of service delivery that are tailored to local populations. Evidence from the international literature is needed to support the development and implementation of these new models of care. So, the aim of this study aimed to carry out a systematic review of international evidence to enhance understanding of the mechanisms whereby new models of service delivery have an impact on health-care outcomes

An Integrated Care Strategy for Pre-schoolers with Suspected Developmental Disorders: The Optimus Co-design Project that has Made it to Regular Care