Integrated care

Integrated care is a concept bringing together inputs, delivery, management and organization of services related to diagnosis, treatment, care, rehabilitation and health promotion. Integration is a means to improve services in relation to access, quality, user satisfaction and efficiency.

Overview

Integrated care, also known as coordinated care, comprehensive care, seamless care, or transmural care, is a worldwide trend in health care reforms and new organizational arrangements focusing on more coordinated and integrated forms of care provision. Integrated care may be seen as a response to the fragmented delivery of health and social services being an acknowledged problem in many health systems.

Types of Integrated Care

There are three types of integrated care:

1. Care coordination involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient's care to achieve safer and more effective care.
2. Co-located services refers to having different health services located in the same geographical area or physical setting.
3. Integrated health services involves the management and delivery of health services so that clients receive a continuum of preventive and curative services, according to their needs over time and across different levels of the health system.

Benefits of Integrated Care

Integrated care has several benefits:

1. Improved access to care
2. Improved quality of care
3. Increased satisfaction with care
4. Improved health literacy
5. Increased perceived quality of life
6. Decreased hospitalization
7. Decreased emergency department visits
8. Decreased use of residential care facilities

Challenges in Integrated Care

Despite the potential benefits, there are also challenges in implementing integrated care:

1. Lack of a shared vision
2. Lack of leadership
3. Lack of financial incentives
4. Lack of a supportive policy environment
5. Lack of skills and knowledge
6. Lack of a supportive organizational culture
7. Lack of appropriate technology
8. Lack of patient and public involvement

See Also

• Healthcare reform
• Healthcare system
• Healthcare management