With an ageing population, chronic illnesses, and rising healthcare costs to both patients and governments, some professionals in recent years have called on an integrated model of care as a crucial focus for the future.
What is an integrated model of care?
An integrated model of care refers to health services that are delivered in a way intended to promote long-term outcomes, including general long-term care, but also spanning things like disease prevention, effective and timely diagnosis opportunities, rehabilitation and palliative care, and holistic wellness support. This is as opposed to the ‘cure’ model, where, for example, a person breaks an arm and is treated for that broken arm before leaving the healthcare system until their next unrelated healthcare need. Integrated models of care are most relevant for people who require long-term care, such as the elderly or immunocompromised, people with chronic conditions, or people with lifelong disabilities. Integrated models of care are designed to:
- Increase positive patient outcomes
- Reduce the overall cost to the healthcare system, and
- Produce better, less stressful long-term outcomes for healthcare providers.
Here are five core components of an effective integrated model of care.
1. Focus resources on patient groups with high healthcare needs and spending
Studies have found that in many health systems, a minority of patients who have complex needs consume the majority of resources—statistically, this translates to about 10% of patients accounting for 50% of the total cost and resources to healthcare systems. Often, these are people who have lifelong health concerns, such as chronic illnesses, comorbidities, and genetic health concerns.
In a successful integrated model of care, patients are separated so that the patients who will likely need ongoing care for chronic illnesses are prioritized earlier in the stream for more intensive treatment, which can reduce the need for down-the-line treatment, reducing the cost to both the patient and the system. Meanwhile, patients who have one-off needs are deprioritized, which reduces the burden on the overall healthcare system by investing intelligently in patient care at different times.
2. Emphasise multidisciplinary care with integrated information systems
The enemy of an integrated healthcare system is siloed information. When passing a patient from one touchpoint to another in their care journey, the patient’s medical history and record should be easily accessible, allowing for each medical practitioner to see and assess the patient’s past and ongoing treatment. This would ideally be a digital system with easily transferable data that all medical practitioners can access—although, of course, security remains a concern, and health organizations must toe the line between patient data being accessible to those who need it, but protected against those who want to steal it.
3. Engage patients in their care journeys
Engaging patients in their care journeys where appropriate can make the patient feel like they have more control over what decisions are being made about their health, and can also reduce the amount of bureaucracy and middle-management, leading to more transparent information transference. For example, when a patient’s health records are emailed, they can be emailed directly to the patient as well as to their practitioner representative. Furthermore, when a patient is actively engaged and able to understand and make decisions about their health, they are more likely to stick to the long-term plan, leading to better health outcomes and less cost to the system and the patient.
4. Embrace digital transformation and innovation
The healthcare sector is open to digital transformation—we’re seeing virtual reality (VR) accelerating healthcare training, students undertaking post masters FNP online programs, artificial intelligence (AI) playing a role in diagnosis, and more. Health organizations should be carefully investing in intelligent technologies that support integrated models of care. For example, new types of information transferring systems might help reduce information silos and provide greater information transparency without compromising security. Likewise, developments in AI might reduce reliance on understaffed sections of the health industry, like nurses, allowing crucial human time and energy to be reallocated to the patients that need it the most.
5. Emphasize the patient’s individual needs and the needs of their families and communities
Finally, and most importantly, an integrated model of care is all about starting and ending with the patient’s needs. This involves talking to the patient, discovering the specifics of their situation, and tailoring the healthcare plan to create long-term health benefits that are specific not only to the patient and their quality of life, but also to the immediate people around them such as their family, as well as the wider community.
Integrated models of care can improve patient health outcomes, reduce costs to the healthcare system and its users, and more intelligently allocate limited human resources. It’s therefore crucial that we prioritize its implementation as potentially the future of healthcare.
