Values Underpinning Integrated, People-Centred Health Services: Similarities and Differences among Actor Groups Across Europe

In addition to the functional aspects of healthcare integration, an understanding of its normative aspects is needed. This study explores the importance of values underpinning integrated, people-centred health services, and examines similarities and differences among the values prioritised by actors across Europe.

Priority setting and cross-country learning: the relevance of TO-REACH for primary care

To inform the primary care community about priorities for research in primary care as came up from the European project TO-REACH and to discuss transferability of service and policy innovations between countries. The large variation in service organisation and policy around primary care in Europe is a huge potential for cross-country learning. 

TO-REACH stands for Transfer of Organizational innovations for Resilient, Effective, equitable, Accessible, sustainable and Comprehensive Health services and systems.

In safe hands: a qualitative study on older adults’ experiences of a tailored primary health care unit

Today’s health care system faces challenges in meeting the needs of older people with multimorbidity. To better cope with these needs, tailored primary health care with geriatric competence and person-centred care has been suggested. The aim of this study was to explore older patients’ experiences of a tailored primary health care unit.

District nurses' perspectives on health-promotive and disease-preventive work at primary health care centres: A qualitative study

Health promotion and disease prevention are of utmost importance for sustainable health care and primary health care. District nurses play a key role in primary health care centres, where they meet people suffering from, and/or having risk factors for, non-communicable diseases.

he district nurses described health-promotive endeavours, in line with person-centred care in prioritising building relationships with patients, starting from their lived experience. They spoke of barriers, at both micro and macro levels, to health-promotive/disease-preventive work. These included language barriers, the impact of the media, and the overall organisation of primary health care. 

Factors influencing the implementation of person-centred care in nursing homes by practice development champions: a qualitative process evaluation of a cluster-randomised controlled trial (EPCentCare) using Normalization Process Theory

Person-centred care (PCC) has been suggested as the preferred model of dementia care in all settings. The EPCentCare study showed that an adapted PCC approach was difficult to implement and had no effect on prescription of antipsychotics in nursing home residents in Germany. This paper reports the qualitative process evaluation to identify facilitators and barriers of the implementation of PCC in German nursing homes from the perspective of participating practice development champions.

The role of the home health care physician in mobile integrated care: a qualitative phenomenograpic study

An increasing older population, along with the organizational principle of remaining at home, has moved health care from institutions into the older person’s home, where several health care providers facilitate care. The Mobile Integrated Care Model strives to provide cost-efficient, coherent, person-centered health care in the home. In the integrated care team, where the home health care physician is the medical authority, several health care professions work across organizational borders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe Home Health Care Physicians perceptions of working and providing health care in the Mobile Integrated Care Model, as well as ...

Adoption and Initial Implementation of a National Integrated Care Programme for Diabetes: A Realist Evaluation

The implementation of models of integrated care for chronic conditions is not well understood. We conducted a realist evaluation to determine how and why the implementation of the National Diabetes Programme in Ireland worked (or not). This study showed that, locally important contexts facilitating implementation included staff experience of delivering diabetes care, capacity, and familiarity with the intended purpose of new clinical posts. The extent to which integrated care was adopted and implemented depended on judgements made by professionals working in these contexts; specifically, judging the relative advantage of the programme and whether to engage in negotiations to legitimize their ...

Barriers for Inter-Organisational Collaboration: What Matters for an Integrated Care Programme?

Inter-organisational collaboration is challenging but essential in managing the complex and comprehensive needs of frail older people. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the influence of different barriers to inter-organisational collaboration when implementing an integrated care programme. The aim of this study was to investigate both inpatient and outpatient staff views on the factors they deemed to be influential to inter-organisational collaboration for an integrated care programme.

How can Big Data Analytics Support People-Centred and Integrated Health Services: A Scoping Review

Frail older adults frequently experience transitions from hospital to home due to their complex care needs. Transitional care models (TCMs) are recommended to tackle adverse outcomes in frail patients. This review summarizes the use of integrated care components in addressing transitional care from hospital to home, provides an overview on reported outcomes and describes the impact of identified components on the outcomes hospital readmission and emergency department visit.

Health Centres 75+ as a New Model to Improve Care for Older People in Poland

According to a recent national audit, the cost of treating patients in geriatric wards is 20-30% less compared to those treated in internal medicine wards. Yet, geriatric care remains largely underdeveloped in Poland, with few human, material, and financial resources. Despite numerous attempts to raise the profile of geriatrics over the years, little progress has been achieved. In 2019, experts under the President of Poland proposed the creation of a network of Health Centres 75+ as the first pillar of geriatric care. These are meant to provide ambulatory services for older people and coordinate provision of other health and social ...