Implementation
The European Observatory’s work in the area of care integration has demonstrated the importance of the specific context in which these new care models are being developed, which makes it difficult to transfer beyond very particular settings. Also, despite efforts to integrate care, initiatives are often hampered by lacking evidence, misaligned financial instruments, the human resource cultures or the political economy factors that underpin particular models of care. Similarly, initiatives continue to focus on disease-based approaches and overlook (and underserve) the growing numbers of people with multimorbidity with hard to predict costs and who face barriers to genuinely person-centered care.
The Observatory is focusing its efforts on providing mechanisms and tools for successful scaling up of integrated care. Topics that have been addressed and will be studied further with a focus on implementation include:
- how to scale up locally successful programs;
- how to balance between flexible and formal integration processes;
- how to have effective leadership and governance in place that can bring about change;
- how to build a multidisciplinary team culture as well as roles and competencies for integrated care;
- how to sustain and pay for integrated care in such a way that it overcomes fragmentation in delivery and financing schemes;
- how to use ICT and eHealth to support implementation, and
- how to eluate and monitor integrated care programmes in order to build an evidence base for policymakers that they can use to further scale up integrated care.
Integration topics
Related publications
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How to support integration to promote care for people with multimorbidity in Europe?
The complex care needs of people with multimorbidity heighten the demand for integrated care. This policy brief identifies the most promising service arrangements...
eHealth is an area of great untapped potential especially in care for people with multimorbidity. This policy brief identifies: the eHealth solutions available;...
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Where do policy makers start if they want to prepare their health systems for the growing challenge of multimorbidity? This overarching policy brief examines...
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