Acute hospitals and integrated care

In March 2015, the King’s Fund published a report regarding the progress made by five acute hospital providers in England towards developing more integrated models of care. According to the report, becoming more closely integrated with primary care has proved a considerable challenge for these hospitals. This is partly due to the lack of alternatives to building relationships on a practice-by-practice basis. As the report explains, GP provider groups or federations “are still at an early stage of development in many areas of the country, and where they do exist it is not always clear that they are sufficiently cohesive to represent local practices and have leverage over them”. 

However, the report identifies a number of factors which facilitate the coordination between hospitals and primary care. These include strong clinical leadership in general practice; employing people with a primary care background at a senior level within the acute provider ...

Older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions

In November 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK published a guideline on care and support for older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions. The guideline recommends that care should be integrated and person-centred, while at present “some people are still being treated as a collection of conditions or symptoms, rather than as a whole person”. NICE calls for a designated care coordinator who would serve as the older person’s first point of contact as well as communicate with all health and social care services, including those provided by non-governmental organizations. Moreover, care should be supported by community-based multidisciplinary teams, which might include “a community pharmacist, physiotherapist or occupational therapist, a mental health social worker or psychiatrist, and a community-based services liaison worker”. The guideline also calls for health and social care providers to support the person with respect in ...

Five principles behind the world’s most efficient health systems

Efficiency is said to be one of the main characteristics of sustainable health systems. In this article posted in Nuffield Trust’s Blog some of the key points that drive health systems towards efficiency are described: 1) integrated pharmacy, community and primary care; 2) hospitals as health systems; 3) standardize, simplify through IT, then shift the skill mix; 4) political courage, take social care seriously; 5) a dominant payer deliver a better health, care and value.

In this article, integrated care is mentioned not only as a health care issue, but also as a way of giving social care the importance it has. Israel health system is mentioned as an example of how integrated services could be a way to achieve efficiency in health care services.

Ten actions required to improve health, social care and well-being in Wales

Health and social care organizations from Wales joined in the Welsh NHS Confederation’s 2016 Challenge Policy Forum and the published  a document called “Ten actions required to improve health, social care and well-being in Wales", trying to establish their priorities in order to get a better system.

The ten priorities described are: long term vision, ensuring financing, planning workforce, person centred and integrated care, public health perspective, improve preventive measurements, creating a culture of honest and open communication with population, improving mental health support, ensuring equal access to health and social care and improving the use of technology.

New primary care model yielding early results

Several ways of shaping primary care are being developed all around the world. Improving the role of nurses or giving general practitioners new competences are just a couple of ways of moving primary care towards a more comprehensive way of working.

In this post in the NHS Confederation Blog, some of the initiatives performed to change primary care are explained and some of the challenges that future primary care will face are listed.

One of the main points outstanded is the need of integrating care and workforce from different levels of health care. As it is said in this post “Patients will benefit from easy access to a single integrated, multidisciplinary team drawn from a wide range of health and social care professionals”

Consolidating the social health insurance schemes in China: towards an equitable and efficient health system

Fragmentation in social health insurance schemes is an important factor for inequitable access to health care and financial protection for people covered by different health insurance schemes in China. To fulfil its commitment of universal health coverage by 2020, the Chinese Government needs to prioritise addressing this issue. After analysing the situation of fragmentation, this Review summarises efforts to consolidate health insurance schemes both in China and internationally. Rural migrants, elderly people, and those with non-communicable diseases in China will greatly benefit from consolidation of the existing health insurance schemes with extended funding pools, thereby narrowing the disparities among health insurance schemes in fund level and benefit package. Political commitments, institutional innovations, and a feasible implementation plan are the major elements needed for success in consolidation. Achievement of universal health coverage in China needs systemic strategies including consolidation of the social health insurance schemes.

Integrating health care and housing to promote healthy aging.

In recent decades, the influence between health status and social conditions has been broadly studied; one of the conditions that has been strongly linked to health status has been housing.

Population ageing and the increase of chronic conditions are two of the drivers that have made that housing conditions become an important factor influencing health.

Many different proposals have been made regarding home care, most of them trying to take hospital care to patient’s home; in this post, some different aspects are discussed, mainly related to what Medicare could do in order to improve housing conditions and its influence in patient’s health: (I) increasing the emphasis on vulnerable population covered by Medicare’s Publicly Assisted Housing Programme, (II) tackling elderly falls as a main health problem and striving to reach the Health People 2020 goal of a 10 percent reduction in the rate of emergency-department visits due to ...

The integration of health and social care services

The Government is committed to the introduction of a single-tier health service, supported by universal health insurance (UHI). Under UHI, everyone will be insured for a standard package of primary and hospital care services, including mental health services. It is understood that primary and hospital care will be funded mainly via the UHI system and social care services and public health services will be funded by general taxation. While funded separately, these services will need to be delivered in an integrated manner around the needs of the person. This review considers the international evidence in relation to mechanisms and structures used to integrate health services (provided under UHI) and social care services.

Integrated care for patients and populations: Improving outcomes by working together

This report examines:

- The case for integrated care

- What current barriers to integrated care need to be overcome and how

- What the Department of Health can do to provide a supporting framework to enable integrated care to flourish

- Options for a practical and technical support to those implementing integrated care, including approaches to evaluatin its impact 

The report asserts that developing integrated care should assume the same priority over the nect decade as reducing waiting times had during the last. The report makes a constructive contribution to the debate about integrated care and will be of interest to policy-makers, health and social care commissioners, and researchers with an interest in integrated care, as well as to health and social care organisations. 

Person-centred care made simple

There are growing numbers of older people and people living with long-term conditions and disabilities. At the same time, health and social care budgets are under increasing pressure. If the high quality care that affords people the best possible quality of life needs to be provide, it needs to rethink the relationship between people and the services that provide their care. 

This guide seeks to provide a quick overview of person centred care. It is wirtten for anyone interested in health and health care, including health care professionals and those who use the NHS.

What can a participatory approach to evaluation contribute to the field of integrated care?

Better integration of care within the health sector and between health and social care is seen in many countries as an essential way of addressing the enduring problems of dwindling resources, changing demographics and unacceptable variation in quality of care. Current research evidence about the effectiveness of integration efforts supports neither the enthusiasm of those promoting and designing integrated care programmes nor the growing efforts of practitioners attempting to integrate care on the ground.

We propose that the approach added value to the programme in a number of ways: by engaging stakeholders in using established evidence and with the benefits of rigorously evaluating their work, by providing insights for local stakeholders that they were either not familiar with or had not fully considered in relation to the development and implementation of the programme and by challenging established mindsets and norms.

While there is still much to learn about the benefits ...

Better transfers of care for older people: How to improve transitions from hospital

Drawing on the findings from recent reports by The King’s Fund, Healthwatch England, the National Audit Office, the Care Quality Commission and the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO), this event will explore new ways of ensuring older people experience a safe, appropriate and timely discharge that is right for them and their health needs. In this event you will discover good practice examples in health, local government, social care, community services and housing and learn how services can plan ahead across their whole populations to proactively manage those most at risk.

The New Care Models for Integrating Health and Social Care through EHCH, PACS & MCP

This conference will look at how health and social care can successfully integrate through multi-speciality community providers (MCP), primary and acute care systems (PACS) and enhanced health in care homes (EHCH) systems, it is aimed at health and social care leaders involved in the planning of population based healthcare, a concept that should underpin services delivered via multi-speciality community providers (MCP), primary and acute care systems (PACS) and accountable care organisations (ACO) and focuses on how organisations can successfully integrate health and social care practices to give better continuity and consistence in care, reduce readmissions, save costs and improve patient experience. Through national updates and learning from vanguard case studies of new care models, delegates will receive practical information on how they can achieve a solid integrated system within their own organisation and workforce in line with the vision of the Five Year Forward View.

Systems, not structures: Changing Health & Social Care

In his speech of 4 November 2015, the then Minister for Health, Simon Hamilton MLA, announced that in response to recommendation 1 of The Right Time, The Right Place report by Sir Liam Donaldson, he would appoint an expert, clinically led panel to consider and lead an informed debate on the best configuration of Health and Social Care services in NI.

The Panel was appointed in January 2016 and comprised local and international members.

PANEL MEMBERS

Professor Rafael Bengoa (Chair)
Dr Alan Stout
Bronagh Scott
Mairead McAlinden
Mr Mark A Taylor

EXPERT ADVICE ON SOCIAL CARE WAS PROVIDED BY:

Sean Holland
Fionnuala McAndrew

THE PANEL WAS SUPPORTED IN ITS WORK BY:

Alastair Campbell
Vikki Greenwood
Catherine Tumelty

People-centred integration in a refugee primary care service: A complex adaptive systems perspective

Services for refugees and asylum seekers frequently experience gaps in delivery and access, poor coordination, and service stress. The purpose of this paper is to examine the approach to integrated care within Companion House (CH), a refugee primary care service, whose service mix includes counselling, medical care, community development, and advocacy. CH has created fluid links between teams, and encouraged open dialogue with client populations. There is a high level of networking between staff, much of it informal. This is underpinned by horizontal management and staff commitment to a shared mission and an ethos of mutual respect. The clinical teams are collectively oriented towards patients but not necessarily towards each other.

Integrated Care: A Pill for All Ills?

There is an increasing policy emphasis on the integration of care, both within the healthcare sector and also between the health and social care sectors, with the simple aim of ensuring that individuals get the right care, in the right place, at the right time. However, implementin this simple aim si rather more complex. In this editorial, they seek to make sense of this complexity and ask: what does integrated care mean in practice? What are the mechanims by which it is expected to achieve its aim? And what is the nature of the evidence base around the outcomes delivered?

Integrating safety concepts in health and social care

Keeping individuals safe from harm and exploitation is a clearly articulated goal within both the health and social care sectors. Two key concepts associated with achieving this common aim are safety and safeguarding. The purpose of this paper is to critically appraise the differences in safety terminology used in health and social care, including opportunities and challenges for greater integration of safety systems across health and social care in England. 

Early findings from the evaluation of the integrated care and support pioneers in England

Integrating health and social care is priority in England, although there is little evidence that previous iniciatives have reduce hospitals admissions or costs. Twenty-five Integrated Care Pioneers have been established to drive change "at scale and place". The early phases of their evaluation (April 2014-June 2016) aimed to identify their objetives, plans ans activities, and to assess the extend to which they have overcome barriers to integration. In the longer-term, we will assess whether integrated care leads to improved outcomes and quality of care and at what cost. 

Digital Health and Care Congress 2017. Embedding technology in health and social care.

NHS England's Next steps on the five year forward view outlines the plan to harness technology and innovation over the next two years but what's really happening on the ground? Join us at this two-day event to hear the latest policy updates and learn from case studies showcasing best practice from around the country.

How health care is funded

The NHS is experiencing the longest and most severe slowdown in funding in its history. This has raised questions about the sustainability of its funding model.

The way that health care is funded varies between different countries. This report explain the main models used to finance health care: taxation, private health insurance and social health insurance. Also, the report show how each model works in its purest form, while recognising that most countries typically pay for health care using a combination of methods

Integrated care in practice – the South Eastern Sydney experience

The purpose of this paper is to describe the recent efforts of a large publicly funded health care organisation in Sydney, Australia to implement integrated care (IC) "at scale and pace" in the messy, real-world context of a District Health Service. This paper highlights key factors relating to implementation and evaluation of a local IC Strategy in the real world. 

An Evaluation of the Role of an Intermediate Care Facility in the Continuum of Care in Western Cape, South Africa

A comprehensive primary healthcare (PHC) approach requires clear referral and continuity of care pathways. South Africa is a lower-middle income country (LMIC) that lacks data on the role of intermediate care (IC) services in the health system. This study described the model of service provision at one facility in Cape Town, including reason for admission, the mix of services and skills provided and needed, patient satisfaction, patient outcome and articulation with other services acrross the spectrum of care 

Challenges and achievements in integrated care: different health and social care providers working together. Successful projects that show that this is the way

The Catalan health system is a public healthcare system, funded by taxes, with universal coverage and public healthcare services portfolio. There´s a mixed healthcare providers network. Delivery of integrated health and social care witha a shift to a patient-centered model is one of the main challenges of our public system. this artcile share three experiences of different models developed to improve integration of social and healthcare services, to guarantee the continuum of care and to achieve quality health and social care outcomes. 

Integrated Care in Action: A Practical Guide for Health, Social Care and Housing Support.

Integration is now a key expectation within the delivery of health and social care services in the UK and internationally. However, it still remains difficult to achieve and sustain in practice. Based on learning from successful, and unsuccessful, integrated care initiatives, this book is an invaluable guide for those responsible for leading, managing and delivering integrated care across health, social care and housing.

Written by an experienced team of researchers who have studied, led and supported integrated care for many years Integrated Care in Practice draws on latest evidence, innovative practice and helpful theory. It provides insights into the common pitfalls that such initiatives can encounter and demonstrates positive approaches to anticipating and responding to such challenges. Throughout, real-case examples are provided, and concepts and models are connected with the realities of day-to-day life for those working within these services.

Integrated care is a goal to aspire to - this book ...

Community Care for People with Complex Care Needs: Bridging the Gap between Health and Social Care

Introduction: A growing number of people are living with complex care needs characterized by multimorbidity, mental health challenges and social deprivation. Required is the integration of health and social care, beyond traditional health care services to address social determinants. This study investigates key care components to support complex patients and their families in the community.

Methods: Expert panel focus groups with 24 care providers, working in health and social care sectors across Toronto, Ontario, Canada were conducted. Patient vignettes illustrating significant health and social care needs were presented to participants. The vignettes prompted discussions on i) how best to meet complex care needs in the community and ii) the barriers to delivering care to this population.

Results: Categories to support care needs of complex patients and their families included i) relationships as the foundation for care, ii) desired processes and structures of care, and iii) barriers and workarounds for desired ...

Person-centred care in 2017: Evidence from service users

Policy makers have been aspiring to a ‘patient-centred NHS’ in England for at least 20 years. In 2008, patient experience became a key part of the national definition of quality in healthcare; and in 2012 that was codified in law.
Person-centred care has become an increasingly prominent stated ambition both of national policy and local practice. In 2013, the Department of Health and all the system leading bodies across health and social care in England declared a shared commitment to making ‘person-centred coordinated care’ the normiv.

What difference, if any, have these stated ambitions made to the experiences of people who need and use services and support? We wanted to know.

National Voices stands for people being in control of their health and carev. From 2011 we have been at the forefront of making the case for person-centred care. There is a growing body of evidence that person-centred approaches are ...

The King's Fund integrated care summit 2018

As the national rhetoric focuses on supporting the delivery of population health and integrated care, different models of care and new ways of working are being implemented across England. While integrated care systems (ICSs) are emerging to lead on planning and commissioning care for their populations, providers are also working together to deliver integrated care locally. 

New models of home care

Policy-makers have outlined their ambitions to provide joined-up care closer to home and enable people to remain independent and in their own homes. Home care will be a central component of realising these ambitions. However, there are serious concerns about the state of the home care market
and the quality of care service users receive.
In this case, the present report summarises the evidence on innovations and models of home care that demonstrate potential in the following key opportunity areas:
1. Technology and digital
2. Co-ordinated care planning
3. Recruitment and retention
4. Autonomous team working
5. Alternative approaches to commissioning
6. Personalisation
7. Integrated care approaches
8. Community assets and connections
9. Family-based support and communal living
.

Closing the gap: Key areas for action on the health and care workforce

Staffing is the make-or-break issue for the NHS in England. Workforce shortages are already having a direct impact on patient care and staff experience. Urgent action is now required to avoid a vicious cycle of growing shortages and declining quality. The workforce implementation plan to be published later this year presents a pivotal opportunity to do this. In this joint report with the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, they set out a series of policy actions that, evidence suggests, should be at the heart of the workforce implementation plan. They focus on nursing and general practice, where the workforce problems are particularly severe.

APIC2 – 2nd Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Care

The 2nd Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Care will take place in Melbourne, Australia, from 11-13 November 2019. With the overarching theme ‘Achieving better value for people and populations’ the conference is a partnership of The University of Newcastle, Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health, Children’s Health Queensland,Central Coast Local Health District, The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association and Health Justice Australia. The conference will bring together researchers, clinicians and managers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and social care. Call for papers announced shortly.

Highlights from ICIC19 in San Sebastian

The 19th International Conference on Integrated Care took place from 1-3 April 2019 in San Sebastian and was attended by 1400 delegates representing 60 countries.

With the overarching theme ‘Evaluating and implement models of integrated people-centred services’, the conference is a partnership of OSAKIDETZA – Basque Health Service, Bioef, Ministry for Health of the Basque Government the City Council of Donostia-San Sebastian and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. The conference brought together researchers, clinicians and managers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and social care.

19th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC19) Highlights from Foundation for Integrated Care on Vimeo.

To watch the video

ICIC20 – 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (Virtual Edition)

The 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC20) will take place virtually, the dates 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th September 2020.

The conference will build on themes from previous years and in particular would like to include in this year's programme papers that are focusing on the following areas:

• Meeting the challenges of integrated care in early development, childhood and transitional care in adolescents
• Integrated community care approaches for better management of diseases with a stigmatizing effect, including for example mental health and addiction issues 
• Better managing the care of vulnerable populations including for example war veterans, and preventing isolation and loneliness 
• Integrating survivorship, caring for carers, palliative and end-of-life care 
• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tools in the people-centred integrated care

Integrated care systems in the English NHS: a critical view

The intriguing evolution of health policy in recent years has implications for all parts of the health system. With the UK falling behind most high-income countries on many measures of child health and growing evidence of a worrying health gap between UK children in deprived and affluent areas, paediatricians and others working in child health will want to remain abreast of the broader policy backdrop even where child health has not been privileged in policymaking. While the 2012 Health and Social Care Act reinforced the fragmentation of the service through multiple providers in competition with one another, subsequent policy promises local collaboration and joint working. This article traces this evolution and asks what it means.

Designing and Implementing Integrated Care Workshop

IFIC Ireland in partnership with the Health and Social Care Board of Northern Ireland (HSCBNI) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) Ireland will host a half-day workshop for academics, researchers, managers, clinicians, policy makers, users and carers of health and social care services across the island of Ireland. The workshop will be chaired by IFIC Ireland’s Chairperson and Director of Integrated Care HSCBNI, Dr. Sloan Harper.

Partnership and accountability in the era of integrated care: a tale from England

In England, the 2012 Health and Social Care Act was heralded to be among the most significant changes in policy for the National Health Service (NHS) since its inception in 1948. Yet a key theme of the policy, namely the intensification of competition in service provision, has not fully materialised.
The 2014 Five Year Forward View outlined visions for a more integrated health and care system in England. Subsequent guidance introduced new organisational forms, such as the so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plans and integrated care systems

Towards a theoretical framework for Integrated Team Leadership (IgTL)

This study presents a framework for the leadership of integrated, interprofessional health, and social-care teams (IgTs) based on a previous literature review and a qualitative study. The theoretical framework for Integrated Team Leadership (IgTL) is based on contributions from 15 professional and nonprofessional staff, in 8 community teams in the United Kingdom. Participants shared their perceptions of IgT’s good practice in relation to patient outcomes. There were two clear elements, Person-focused and Task-focused leadership behaviors with particular emphasis on the facilitation of shared professional practices. Person-focused leadership skills include: inspiring and motivating; walking the talk; change and innovation; consideration; empowerment, teambuilding and team maintenance; and emotional intelligence.

Unknown makes unloved—A case study on improving integrated health and social care in the Netherlands using a participatory approach

Many initiatives integrating health and social care have been implemented in order to provide adequate care and support to older people living at home. Further development of existing initiatives requires iterative processes of developing, implementing and evaluating improvements to current practice. This case study provides insight into the process of improving an existing integrated care initiative in the Netherlands. Using a participatory approach, researchers and local stakeholders collaborated to develop and implement activities to further improve collaboration between health and social care professionals. Improvement activities included interprofessional meetings focussing on reflection and mutual learning and workplace visits. Researchers evaluated the improvement process, using data triangulation of multiple qualitative and quantitative data sources. 

Towards Integrated Youth Care: A Systematic Review of Facilitators and Barriers for Professionals

To overcome fragmentation in support for children and their families with multiple and enduring problems across life domains, professionals increasingly try to organize integrated care. However, it is unclear what facilitators and barriers professionals experience when providing this integrated care. Our systematic review, including 55 studies from a broad variety of settings in Youth Care, showed that integrated care on a professional level is a multi-component entity consisting of several facilitators and barriers. Findings were clustered in seven general themes: 'Child's environment', 'Preconditions', 'Care process', 'Expertise', 'Interprofessional collaboration', 'Information exchange', and 'Professional identity'. The identified facilitators and barriers were generally consistent across studies, indicating broad applicability across settings and professional disciplines. This review clearly shows that when Youth Care professionals address a broad spectrum of problems, a variety of facilitators and barriers should be considered.

ICIC20 – 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (Virtual Edition)

Digital Solutions: Adoption, Adaption and their role in post-Covid19 health and social care delivery

As each integrated care building block is reliant on information, digital solutions could be seen as the cement that holds the blocks together. Albeit, the arguments for greater use and investment have become increasingly compelling, the rate of adoption remains below expectations; that is until COVID-19.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, countries have seen a rapid citizen-led proliferation of digital solutions being used for remote working, socialisation between family, friends and communities, and education, to name but a few. This rapid pace of change has been mirrored by national and local government and public health through the use of social media to effectively reach individuals to provide guidance, support, collect well-being and COVID infection data, and undertake tracing through Apps. Furthermore, many countries have created fully functioning field hospitals with IT departments working around the clock to ensure these new care facilities can be up and running to provide safe ...

Can Integrated Care Help in Meeting the Challenges Posed on Our Health Care Systems by COVID-19? Some Preliminary Lessons Learned from the European VIGOUR Project

The COVID-19 pandemic puts health and care systems under pressure globally. This current paper highlights challenges arising in the care for older and vulnerable populations in this context and reflects upon possible perspectives for different systems making use of nested integrated care approaches adapted during the work of the EU-funded project VIGOUR (“Evidence based Guidance to Scale-up Integrated Care in Europe”).

ValueCare: Cork/Kerry Pilot Site

Refining Program Theory for a Place-Based Integrated Care Initiative in Sydney, Australia

A number of families living in our community experience many barriers to accessing health and social care. The problems that these families face are highly complex, often spanning over generations, and cannot be addressed by one agency alone.  The Healthy Homes and Neighbourhoods (HHAN) Integrated Care Initiative attempts to connect services to address these barriers, and ensure families have their complex health and social needs met; keep themselves and their children safe; and keep families connected to society.

This article shows that in addition to serving families in Sydney, HHAN has also established place-based initiatives (PBI) in disadvantaged areas such as Redfern. Redfern PBI shares the HHAN location with housing, drug and alcohol services, and financial and legal services. This integration is intended to facilitate access to services and multi-agency support for vulnerable families in Redfern. Therefore, this study aims to assess for whom, when and why the HHAN GDP ...

IFIC Ireland Webinar: Rehabilitation Care. Making Integrated Care Happen

The International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) Ireland hosts and facilitates a series of webinars titled ‘Making Integrated Care Happen’ which forms one of the key delivery mechanisms enabling knowledge mobilisation across all stakeholders with an interest in developing and implementing integrated care within the healthcare systems on the island of Ireland.

Next session in the 2020 webinar series will focus on rehabilitation care and how various initiatives in Ireland are enhancing the experience of integrated care for patients, informal caregivers and health care professionals.

Edina O’Driscoll, National Clinical Lead – Rehabilitation Medicine, HSE will speak about The Rehab Landscape in Ireland: A journey towards change on the rollout of the National Clinical Programme for Rehabilitation Medicine across Ireland. We will also hear from Fiona Steed, Group Lead Allied Health at UL Hospital Group on the development and evolution of the Intermediate Care Facility at UL Arena initially deployed as ...

Indicators of an Integrated Home Care Model Shaped by the Needs of Patients Discharged from the Emergency Department

Developing community care models aims to satisfy the needs of patients’ in-home care comprehensively. This is crucial to decrease adverse events and prevent rehospitalization.

The growing burden of chronic diseases, patients experiencing fragmented care, and increasing demand for coordination across providers in the health and social sector correlates with the need for the integration of care. The starting point in developing an integrated care strategy should be identifying and assessing population needs.

Models of integrated care may enhance patient satisfaction, increase the perceived quality of care, and enable access to services. The term ‘new models of care’ refers to a wide range of interventions aiming to address issues of integration across healthcare and between health and social care. Improved discharge planning and flow of care, and improved sharing of knowledge between practitioners, are essential components of new models of integrated care. Discharge of the patient from the hospital to the ...

A Conceptual Framework for Integrated Community Care

The various health and social care services provided in a given local area (i.e., place-based) must not only deliver primary care in proximity to the population, but act upstream on the social determinants of health. This type of care, when provided in a holistic and integrated manner, aims to improve the physical and mental health—but also the well-being and social capital—of individuals, families, groups and communities. This type of approach is known as Integrated Community Care (ICC).

This article was developed from a non-systematic review of scientific and grey literature followed by a qualitative analysis and researcher reflections on ICC. It presents the core concepts of ICC, namely temporality, local area, health care, social care, proximity and integration. These concepts are unpacked and a conceptual diagram is set forth to put the dynamic links between the concepts into perspective.

The purpose of the article is to provide ...

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Integrated Care Implementation in Central and Eastern Europe – Perspective from 9 CEE Countries

Health and social care systems in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have undergone significant changes and are currently dealing with serious problems of system disintegration, coordination and a lack of control over the market environment. The increased health needs related to the ageing society and epidemiological patterns in these countries also require funding needs to increase, rationing to be reformed, sectors to be integrated (the managed care approach), and an analytical information base to be developed if supervision of new technological approaches is to improve. 

What does Success Look Like for Leaders of Integrated Health and Social Care Systems? a Realist Review

Health and social care services in England are moving towards greater integration, yet little is known about how leadership of integrated care teams and systems can be supported and improved. This realist review explores what works about the leadership of integrated care teams and systems, for whom, in what circumstances and why. This review has generated new perspectives on the leadership of integrated care teams and systems that can be built upon, developed, and tested further.

23rd International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC23)

Integrated Care for Older People: Theories and Practices

As the first Chinese monograph to explicitly connect the “Yiyang Jiehe” with “integrated care for older people”, this book presents readers with a thorough overview of integrated care for older people, from theoretical content, management tools, to practices in China and international learning.