Learning from the Pandemic to Improve Care for Vulnerable Communities: The Perspectives and Recommendations from the Rare Disease Community

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about health and social care disruptions for millions of people with complex health needs and disabilities, who are amongst the most vulnerable populations. More than ever before, the need for integrated care is pressing, as fragmented health and care systems struggle to face the pandemic and vulnerable individuals are exposed to aggravated health, social and economic hurdles. The implementation of effective integrated care pathways is long due and must build upon the key guidelines being published by experts worldwide. Furthermore, the pandemic is opening the doors for more remote healthcare and care coordination, with both ...

Co-Creating Descriptors and a Definition for Person-Centred Coordinated Health Care: An Action Research Study

The aim of this study was to co-create a definition and generic descriptors for person-centred coordinated care for Ireland generated from service users’ narratives.

An overarching action research approach was used to engage and empower people to tangibly impact health policy and practice. Through focus groups and a qualitative survey, primary data were collected from a national sample of health services users, caregivers and health care service users’ representative groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Three major themes were co-produced as essential care elements. These were: ‘My experience of healthcare’, ‘Care that I am confident in’ and ...

How to Ensure Referral and Uptake for COPD Rehabilitation – Part 2: A Case of Integrated Care on How to Translate Findings of Cross- Sectorial Workflow to Improve Cross-Sectorial Rehabilitation

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can greatly benefit from rehabilitation initiatives, but referral to rehabilitation is sparse. Before we initiated activities to ensure hospital referrals for prevention initiatives at the municipality, we investigated referral patterns and relevant factors in the cross-sectorial workflow.

This study aims to ensure referral to municipality COPD rehabilitation, by simplifying the referral procedures, and by facilitating relational coordination across the two health care settings.

Integrated health Services for Children: a qualitative study of family perspectives

There is increasing evidence that integrated care improves child related quality of life and reduces health service use. However, there is limited evidence on family perspectives about the quality of integrated care for children’s services. This study aimed to understand children, young people, and caregivers’ perceptions of a new integrated care service, and to identify essential components of integrated care for children and young people with ongoing conditions.

Integrated care and outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation and comorbidities

Integrated care for management of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients has been associated with a reduction in adverse events. The ‘Atrial fibrillation Better Care (ABC) pathway’ has been proposed to streamline such integrated management. In this paper, we analysed the impact of ABC pathway adherent clinical management on outcomes in AF patients with high?risk ‘metabolic’ comorbidities (i.e. diabetes mellitus [DM], chronic kidney disease [CKD], metabolic syndrome [MetS].

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 ...

Tackling COPD misdiagnosis in primary care through integrated care

COPD specific integrated care services have in the past been shown to improve patients’ outcomes and reduce costs. However, tackling the issue of COPD misdiagnosis within primary care is potentially an additional purpose integrated care can serve.

Integrating Primary and Secondary Care to Enhance Chronic Disease Management: A Scoping Review

In Ireland, as in many healthcare systems, health policy has committed to delivering an integrated model of care to address the increasing burden of chronic disease.

Integrated care is an approach to healthcare systems delivery that aims to minimise fragmentation of patient services and improve care continuity. To this end, how best to integrate primary and secondary care is a challenge.

This paper aims to undertake a scoping review of empirical work on the integration of primary and secondary care in relation to chronic disease management.

Capacity building of health care professionals to perform interprofessional management of non-communicable diseases in primary care – experiences from Ukraine

Non-communicable diseases are leading causes of death and disability across the world. Countries with the highest non-communicable disease (NCD) burden in the WHO European Region are often those that have some of the greatest health system challenges for achieving good outcomes in prevention and care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an interprofessional capacity building intervention carried out in Ukraine to improve the management non-communicable diseases in primary health care.

Digital tools as promoters for person-centered care practices in chronic care? Healthcare professionals’ experiences from rheumatology care

Person-centered care (PCC) emphasize the importance of supporting individuals’ involvement in care provided and self-care. PCC has become more important in chronic care as the number of people living with chronic conditions is increasing due to the demographic changes. Digital tools have potential to support interaction between patients and healthcare providers, but empirical examples of how to achieve PCC in chronic care and the role of digital tools in this process is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate strategies to achieve PCC used by the healthcare professionals at an outpatient Rheumatology clinic (RC), the strategies’ relation to ...