Impact of Integrated Care Model (ICM) on Direct Medical Costs in Management of Advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a commonly diagnosed condition in people older than 50 years of age. In advance stage of this disease, integrated care (IC) is recommended as an optimal approach. IC allows for holistic and patient-focused care carried out at the patient´s home. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of IC on costs of care and on demand for medical services among patients included in IC. The high costs of care in advance COPD indicate the need for new forms of effective care. IC caussed a decrease in costs and in the ...

People powered primary care: learning from Halton

A community-centred approach to health called Community Wellbeing Practices (CWP) is being to patients at all 17 GP Practices in Halton in order to respond more appropriately to patients´social needs which are often an underlying reason for their presentation at primary care services. 

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. 

Feasibility of an implementation strategy for the integration of health promotion in routine primary care: a quantitative process evaluation

Process evaluation is recommended to improve the understanding of underlying mechanisms related to clinicians, patients, contect and intervention delivery that may impact on trial or program results, feasibility and transferability to practice. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of the Prescribe Healthy Life (PVS from the Spanish "Prescribe Vida Saludable") implementation strategy for enhancing the adoption and implementation of an evidence-based health promotion intervention in primary health care. 

Bringing integration home: policy on health and social care integration in the four nations of the UK

This paper outlines relevant policies on the integration of health and social care in four home nations: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. The aim of the paper is to offer a comparison of emphasis and approaches and draw out general insights on the implementation of integrated care policy. Also in this paper reveals considerable opportunities for further research and comparative modelling of integration approaches. 

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. 

The Development, Description and Appraisal of an Emergent Multimethod Research Design to Study Workforce Changes in Integrated Care Interventions

In this paper, they provide a detailed and explicit description of the processes and decisions underlying and shaping the emergent multimethod research design of their study on workforce changes in integrated chronic care. They argue that the terminology developed for the description of mixed methods designs should also be used for multimethod designs such as the one presented here. 

Space, time and demographic change: A geographical approach to integrating health and social care

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential value of applying spatial science and technology to the issue of care integration across what are the often fragmented domains of health and social care provision. The issue of focus for this purpose is population ageing because it challenges existeing information and practice silos. Better integration, the author proposes, needs to adopt a geographic approach to deal with the challenges that population ageing present to health and social care as they currently function in many countries. 

Tenacious assumptions of person-centred care? Exploring tensions and variations in practice.

In recent decades, the ‘tenacious assumptions’ of biomedicine regarding the neutrality and universality of its knowledge claims have been significantly challenged by the growth of new collaborative and patient-focused models of Healthcare delivery. In this article, we discuss and critically reflect upon one such alternative Healthcare model developed at the University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-Centred Care in Sweden. This centre uses three clinical routines of narrative, partnership and documentation to provide Healthcare to people recognized as unique individuals rather than patients. Person-centred care in Gothenburg and more broadly is based on the assumption that a person is independently capable ...

Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of person-centred care in different healthcare contexts

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