A Comprehensive Theory of Integration

Abstract

Efforts to transform health care delivery to improve care have increasingly focused on care integration. However, variation in how integration is defined has complicated efforts to design, synthesize, and compare studies of integration in health care. Evaluations of integration initiatives would be enhanced by describing them according to clear definitions of integration and specifying which empirical relationships they seek to test-whether among types of integration or between integration and outcomes of care. Drawing on previous work, we present a comprehensive theoretical model of relationships between types of integration and propose how to measure them.

De lessen die de zorg kán en móét leren van de COVID-19-pandemie

“…Op de derde plaats hebben zorgorganisaties de handen massaal en adequaat ineengeslagen. Op verschillende plekken in het land zijn coronacentra opgezet, die bemenst worden door medewerkers van verschillende zorgaanbieders, en patiënten van overbezette ziekenhuizen worden overgeplaatst naar ziekenhuizen in andere delen van het land of zelfs naar ziekenhuizen in Duitsland [ 13 , 14 ]. Ook met private partijen en burgerinitiatieven buiten de zorg wordt op ongekende schaal en in een hoog tempo samengewerkt.…”

Saturdays-in-Motion: Education and Empowerment through an Interdisciplinary Team Approach for Parkinson’s Disease in Cali-Colombia

“…Initiatives such as the Dutch approach called ParkinsonNet are a multifaceted integrative model with clinicians and allied health professionals aiming to improve the multidisciplinary management of PD patients [ 13 ]. Thus, MDTs translate collaboration into improved clinical processes [ 17 ]. When faced with a suboptimal health system and profound economic limitations, MDT with a community approach becomes almost a necessity; its value in PD patient care has been established in developed countries such as the Netherlands; however, it has not yet been proved in developing countries.…”

Survey of Patient-Centered Coordination of Care for Diabetes with Cardiovascular and Mental Health Comorbidities in the Department of Veterans Affairs

“…4 Patient experiences of coordinated care include experiences of knowledge integration across time and settings, staff knowledge of treatment, support for self-directed care, timely communication of test results, qualities of treatment-related communication, information flow to specialists, and coordination during hospital transitions. 5 Authors have distinguished between integration and care coordination arguing that integration eliminates the need for care coordination because integrated systems are unified into synergistic whole. 5 For purposes of this paper, consistent with the rest of this special issue, we treat these terms as roughly synonymous, emphasizing how patient-centered integrated care enables coordination.…”

“…5 Authors have distinguished between integration and care coordination arguing that integration eliminates the need for care coordination because integrated systems are unified into synergistic whole. 5 For purposes of this paper, consistent with the rest of this special issue, we treat these terms as roughly synonymous, emphasizing how patient-centered integrated care enables coordination.…”