Integrated Working for Enhanced Health Care in English Nursing Homes

BACKGROUND: The increasingly complex nature of care home residents’ health status means that this population requires significant multidisciplinary team input from health services. To address this, a multisector and multiprofessional enhanced healthcare programme was implemented in nursing homes across Gateshead Council in Northern England. STUDY AIMS: To explore the views and experiences of practitioners, social care officers, and carers involved in the enhanced health care in care home programme, in order to develop understanding of the service delivery model and associated workforce needs for the provision of health care to older residents. METHODS: A qualitative constructivist methodology was adopted. The study had two stages. Stage 1 explored the experiences of the programme enhanced healthcare workforce through group, dyad, and individual interviews with 45 participants. Stage 2 involved two workshops with 28 participants to develop Stage 1 findings (data were collected during February–March 2016). Thematic and content analysis were applied. FINDINGS: The enhanced healthcare programme provides a whole system approach to the delivery of proactive and responsive care for nursing home residents. The service model enables information exchange across organizational and professional boundaries that support effective decision making and problem solving. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Understanding of the processes and outcomes of a model of integrated health care between public and independent sector care home services for older people.