Are you wondering what the new worldwide movement in health services is? Or do you have an idea and want to know more about it? Integrated health concepts, a new global trend in health care reforms, is defined according to the World Health Organization as the management and organization of health services related to diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and care. With this improved health concepts, many individuals can get the care they need when they need it. It is a new approach that is user-friendly, attain the desired outcomes and give value for money.
Integrated health, also identified as integrated care, comprehensive care, coordinated care, seamless care, or transmural care. The term integration means to expand services related to quality, access, user satisfaction and efficiency. Thus, integrated health concepts are created to bring all together the inputs, delivery, organization and management related to health care services.
Integrated health concepts are also well-known in new organizational measures targeting on more integrated and coordinated forms of care facility. This is an essential concept nowadays, as getting health services have become a challenge, and many more people are getting sick.
The main focus of integrated health concepts is to give consistent care or coordinated care for patients and their families. The theory is that this will result in a higher quality of care as well as better health outcomes for patients, by ensuring that the transitions of a patient are properly through the healthcare system.
Types of Integrated Health Concepts
Although several categories of integrated health concepts exist, first, you have to know the various classes of integration to understand better how it exists. The following are different types of integration.
Functional: Multiple connections exist and are facilitated over the different units and divisions as an approach to give the best value and administration to patients. The concepts move beyond patient care and pertain to secondary departments, including also the IT office and Quality Assurance offices.
It ensures that there is a substantial relationship between non-patient care units and patient care units. For that reason, it will provide a better health service experience for patients for having a continuous transition throughout all aspects of healthcare.
Physician: The doctors and the association they are working with and associated with similar shared values, vision, and goals as an approach to restricting differences in the patient care provided.
The doctor and association should see each other as partners cooperating for the better same reason. In that case, this will help them to give more productive and better assistance that will result from having better overall health outcomes for patients.
Clinical: Many different providers and organizations that can give services to patients.
These services are facilitated through a care coordinator to expand the quality of medical care received by the patient. Also, these services are to provide the most effective and efficient care.
Integrated health concepts are also associated with philosophy and movement of collaborative care. Collaborative care has several names, models, and definitions that often involves the arrangement of psychological health, behavioral health and substance use services in primary care. The following subjects are the main features of collaborative care models.
- Integration of psychological health specialists in primary care medical settings
- Close collaboration between psychological health and medical or nursing providers
- Emphasis on treating the whole person and the entire family
There are several national associations dedicated to collaborative care, like the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association. Since collaborative care is intertwined with integrated health concepts, the medical setting will be more advanced and more lives can be saved.