Why integrated care? Conclusions from an international expert survey

PURPOSE: Exploring the indicators most crucial for actors in health and social care services and identifying those which lead up to the initiation and implementation of integrated care. By analysing the reasons why integrated care is chosen and initiated, the underlying mechanisms and decision-making processes of integrated care are highlighted. THEORY: Even though integrated care projects and programmes are implemented in very different settings and health systems one can find the same main actors everywhere. They share similar goals and principles which are universal and not unique to one specific country or system. Hence, it is likely that the type of actor, i.e. health insurance, is more influential on the decision-making process than the health system and surrounding setting. In other words, it was stipulated that a health insurer in the Netherlands will have similar priorities for integrated care as a health insurer in Singapore and hence will choose similar integrated care approaches. On the other hand, system administrators can strongly incentivise or discourage innovation and cooperation within the health and social care dominions, i.e. by passing laws or (re)organising the financing system. It is suggested that integrated care is implemented more widely in countries where stakeholders receive targeted incentives and fragmentation within the system is less pronounced. METHODS: The hypotheses were tested using an international expert questionnaire, contacting integrated care managers and decision-makers in Europe, North America and Australasia. The results were quantitatively analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Integrated care is stipulated to offer solutions to the demographic changes, the concurring increase of chronic disease and the pressures on restricted resources experienced in the modern health systems of today. The survey conducted suggested a more diversified picture regarding the expectations and priorities set into the concept by health care decision-makers. While all of these challenges are perceived by them, their undisputed priority is on the introduction and enhancement of management structures on all levels. They do not value financial restrictions as severely as may have been anticipated and they revealed that neither active patient participation nor the introduction of outcome measurement are high priorities when introducing integrated care. The findings also suggest that the same stakeholders follow similar priorities disregarding the different health systems they act in. In conclusion, two levels of priority setting have been identified as highly important for integrated care initiation: on the policy level, prioritisation of integrated care along with specific promotion measures influence decision-making; on the organisational level, the need for clear structures and better management tools both in the organisation itself and in the management of the targeted patient population, reflect the highest priorities for the decision-making process. The response rate was 18% with the majority of responses coming from Germany, The Netherlands, UK and the USA. DISCUSSION: Integrated care has come a long way from the first projects implemented by health insurance organisations to a colourful array of projects and permanent programmes, spanning from local to national level and from very targeted to very broad inclusion criteria, initiated, owned and financed by a mix of all stakeholders and agents in the system. Hence, integrated care developed into a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ approach, stimulating change and confusion at the same time. Still, in most countries, it has not entered mainstream health care organisation and management and continues to struggle in proving its value. Asking why integrated care is initiated and implemented in the first place helps understand the priorities and objectives of decision-makers in health care, and hence can lead to a more targeted development and application of integrated care models.