The Core Dimensions of Integrated Care: A Literature Review to Support the Development of a Comprehensive Framework for Implementing Integrated Care

As part of the EU-funded Project INTEGRATE, the research sought to develop an evidence-based understanding of the key dimensions and items of integrated care associated with successful implementation across varying country contexts and relevant to different chronic and/or long-term conditions. This paper identifies the core dimensions of integrated care based on a review of previous literature on the topic

Participation in medical activities beyond standard consultations by Swiss general practitioners: a cross-sectional study

Few data exist to support the observation that general practitioners (GPs) occupy many important positions in our communities or to characterize which GPs devote more of their time to such activities. We sought to characterize community-based complementary medical activities performed by GPs in the canton Vaud, Switzerland.

Building Competencies for Integrated Care: Defining the Landscape

As the discussion in integrated care moves from "what needs to be done?" to "how to do we achieve sustainable change?" one of the key questions is "how do we get people to change?". Electronic health records, budgetary processes and governance structures are all important building blocks but achieving the transformation required will ultimately stand or fall on changing how we act. Therefore at the heart of this complexity are two more simple, yet profound questions: how do we learn? And who do we learn from?

Communities and health

The role of communities in improving health is receiving increasing, and long overdue, attention in health policy and practice. Stronger recognition of the role communities can play and greater involvement are needed if there is to be a successful move to population health systems. As part of this shift in focus, sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems need to take the role communities can play in improving and sustaining good health seriously. 

Identification of influencing factors and strategies to improve communication between general practitioners and community nurses: a qualitative focus group study

As the number of patients with complex healthcare needs grows, inter-professionaal collaboration between primary care professionals must be constantly optimized. General practitioners (GPs) and community nurses (CNs) are key professions in primary care; however, poor GP-CN communication is common, and research into the factors influencing its quality is limited. 

Using Complexity and Network Concepts to Inform Healthcare Knowledge Translation

Many representations of the movement of healthcare knowledge through society exist, and multiple models for the translation of evidence into policy and practice have been articulated. Most are linear or cyclical and very few come dose to reflecting the dense and intricate relationships, systems and politicis of organizations and the processes required to enact sustainable improvements. This study illustrates how using complexity and network concepts can better inform knowledge translation (KT) and argue that changing the way we think and talk about KT could enhance the creation and movement of knowledge throughout those systems needing to develop and utilize it. 

How to assess and prepare health systems in low- and middle-income countries for integration of services—a systematic review

Despite growing support for integration of frontline services, a lack of information about the pre-conditions necessary to integrate such services hampers the ability of policy makers and implementers to assess how feasible or worthwhile integration may be, especially in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). This article adopted a modified systematic review with aspects of realist review, including quantitative and qualitative studies that incorporated assessment of health system preparedness for capacity to implement integrated services. 

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 ...

The Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting: Results of a European programme to improve health workforce policie

Health workforce (HWF) planning and forecasting is faced with a number of challenges, most notably a lack of consistent terminology, a lack of data, limited model, demand based, and future-based planning and limited inter-country collaboration. The Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecsting (JAHWF, 2013-2016) aimed to move foward on the HWF planning process and support countries in tackling the key challenges facing the HWF and HWF planning. This paper synthesizes and discusses the results of the JAHWF. Ti is shown that the JAHWFhas provided importatn setps towards improved HWF planning and forecasting across Europe. 

Defining indicators for assessing integrated care (2012-2014): Lessons learned on methodology and the evolution in assessment approach

Integrated care interventions are extremely complex as they tend to invilve multiple actors and different care levels. When evaluating such programmes indicators provide several benefits in comparison with other approaches. The Agència de Qualitat Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya, through a new collaborative approach, has been working on the development of indicators specially aimed at assesing integrated care. The aim of this study was to present the methodology developed and review the evolution of the prioritized indicators in three different projects aimed at assessing chronic integrated care initiatives.