Integrated Care - Defining for the Future through the Eye of the Beholder

The central defining features of integrated care which cuts across all stakeholders (people and communities, individual providers, a system of organisations, and policymakers) are continuity and coordination. Continuity occurs temporally and coordination occurs spatially. For the person at the centre of care, their experience is seamless across formal/informal care, professional, organisational and sectoral boundaries and continuous over time. For providers, they design care to effectively manage transitions from one profession, organisation or sector to another over multiple episodes of care. For policymakers, integrated care requires them to ensure that the wider context supports continuity and coordination and does not work against them.