The Royal College of Physicians has published in 2016 a document titled “Integrated care -  taking specialist medical care beyond the hospital walls”.

In the first part of this document they are described some of the main topics about integrated care, how it is conceptualize and what it really implies for patients, professionals and for the whole system.

Afterwards, some study cases are shown as examples to go deeper into different dimensions of integrated care such as the need for sustainable models of integrated care, leadership, management and governance or self-management and care.

Finally, the document lists five key areas where physicians should focus in order to improve integrated care: (I) Ensure that the patient’s and carer’s perspective is the organising principle of service delivery across organisations, (II) Support population health and wellbeing outside the hospital walls, while offering specialist care within the hospital and being an advocate for patient groups with specialist needs within the population, (III) Evolve medical training and curricula to ensure that physicians of the future are equipped with the additional skills to deliver integrated services, (IV) Ensure that organisations that deliver care support consultants with appropriate job plans, contracts, management structures, governance frameworks and information systems to deliver integrated care and (V) Evaluate the effects of health service redesign on patients’ and the population’s health and wellbeing.

Source:

Royal College of Physicians