Strengths and Limitations of Integrated Care
1. Critically analyse the definition, strength and limitations of integrated care (should have at least 3 references to support your views).
2. Identify an area in your practice that you consider to be fragmented and that would benefit from integrated models of care.
My area of practice is respiratory medicine and I feel a pathway for enabling patients to obtain nutrition/fluids is needed as it highlighted in the covid pandemic that patients on CPAP were loosing a lot of weight/muscle mass due to reduced nutritional intake
3. Expected to write 500 words (+/- 10%)
I have attached the assignment brief we were given, plus some learning resources we were given
A couple I could not attach were
NHS England Integrated Care pathways 2015
NHS England New models of care programme 2015
Probably worth looking at those on the internet though and maybe quoting at least 1 of them as I live in England
Sample Paper
The Integrated Care
Definition, Strengths, and Limitations
The National Health Service (NHS) in England has focused on approving a national blueprint that checks the modification of health delivery to improve patients’ service and enhance their care delivery. Patients’ care is a crucial act in the health department, and the whole of their pathways should be carefully considered when planning for their care. According to Smith and Ross, a more integrated and sustainable healthcare system is significant in solving ill-health problems in England (2007). Integrated care entails organized and coordinated services that are planned, well administered, and delivered to specific users by specialized professionals in diverse organizational set ups (England, 2016). It is a unified step that entails planning, assessment, empowering, and lobbying for support to help meet the health priorities of individuals to enhance the quality and lower the cost of expenditure.
Integrated care is important in health care as it contains models that encompass all sectors and economies that positively impact all aspects of health care. Furthermore, the initiative that will be patient-centred contributes to patient satisfaction and the general quality of service delivery (Baxter et al., 2018). The NHS stands to benefit from the change in patients’, the public and other stakeholders’ perception of its healthcare system that enhance subscriptions to their services (Hazarika and Purdy, 2015). Integrated care also enhances smooth patients access to services as all the inherent challenges like the fragmentations of care, high costs, department-specific care shortcomings and appointment/consultation complaints are addressed during the integration.
The integrated care technique has its limitations. The process requires the realignment of all relevant organizations and development networks which can be costly compared to the existing system. Insufficient resources and inadequate coordination of care pathways can also hamper the model’s effectiveness. The patient-centred care might be biased because the needs of the medics are foregone at the expense of perfecting patients’ satisfaction which might lead to dissatisfaction (Iacobucci, 2015). The implementers can also tailor the models to satisfy their selfish interests at the expense of the patients’ needs.
How my Respiratory Medicine Department will benefit from Integrated Care
My practice and service delivery in respiratory medicine can benefit best from the integrated care initiative. During the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, most patients undergoing Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) experienced high weight and muscle mass loss attributed to insufficient nutritional intake. A care pathway that will enable patients to obtain nutrition supplements is significant in my department. Communication is a key concept in integrated care that will guide agreement on the best care pathway and appropriate resource allocation and IT utilization to facilitate the care (Smith and Ross, 2007). The collaboration can help redesign strategies that will enhance care plans for the patients’ nutrition intakes.
An example of rehabilitation and virtual respiratory clinics for these patients that boost their respiratory care through the integrated models can help overcome the burden drastically. A well-coordinated plan can enhance seeking expert advice on how the CPAP patients’ weight can be restored by following up on their daily dietary inclinations. Undoubtedly, the patients will show positive outcomes after consistent monitoring and transformation of their care pathways. The Kaiser Permanente integrated care model embraced in the USA that addresses all care areas, including general practice, self-care, episodic care, preventative screening, and continuous management of people with pre-existing medical conditions, is an ideal model for these CPAP patients. Their self-care and general clinician management can entail nutritional supplements and innovative strategies that alleviate their muscle mass loss and thus improve their health status.
References
Baxter, S., Johnson, M., Chambers, D., Sutton, A., Goyder, E., & Booth, A. (2018). The effects of integrated care: a systematic review of UK and international evidence. BMC health services research, 18(1), 1-13.
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3161-3
England, N. H. S. (2016). New Models of Care Programme. 2015.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/new_care_models.pdf
Iacobucci, G. (2015). NHS England announces 29 sites to spearhead integrated care models.
https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h1362.short
Hazarika, R., & Purdy, S. (2015). Integrated care: demonstrating value and valuing patients. Future Hospital Journal, 2(2), 132.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6460198/
Smith, E., & Ross, F. M. (2007). Service user involvement and integrated care pathways. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09526860710743345/full/html
