Measuring Processes of Integrated Care for Hospital to Home Transitions

BACKGROUND: Integrated care is a promising approach to improve transitions from hospital for older adults. Measures of integrated care tend to be survey-based or outcomes focused. This study determined the feasibility of using hospital chart data to measure integrated processes of care. METHODS: This paper reports on two objectives: 1) the development of an integrated care transition framework and associated features of care; 2) a pilot study to test if the features could be applied to 214 hospital patient charts. RESULTS: Twenty-four features were tested, and fifteen features could be reliably measured using chart review. Of these, the percent of patients classified as receiving integrated care varied widely across the items, from 0.05% to 84.1%. DISCUSSION: The framework presented in this paper can guide measurement of system and clinical delivery of integrated care transitions. In combination with other tools, chart review can provide perspective on day-to-day care delivery not otherwise accessible, and highlight areas requiring practice change. CONCLUSION: Multiple measurement perspectives are needed to improve our understanding of how integrated care is being implemented. While chart review cannot address the full breadth of integrated care, it can help understand how processes of care are being implemented in routine daily care.