Barriers and Facilitators to Workforce Changes in Integrated Care

Introduction: The aim of the study is to investigate the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of workforce changes implemented as part of integrated chronic care interventions. Methods: We used a qualitative multimethod design that combined expert questionnaires, a systematic literature review, and secondary analysis of two case reports. Twenty-five experts, twenty-one studies and two case reports were included in the study. Results: Most barriers related to problematic delivery structures, health professionals’ skills and enthusiasm, IT, funding, culture and cooperation and communication. Most facilitators related to health professionals’ motivation and enthusiasm, good delivery structures, communication and cooperation, IT, patients, leadership and senior management. Overall, similar categories of barriers and facilitators were found. Discussion: We recommend that future research focusses on more complex designs including multiple data sources, as these are better able to capture the complexity of interventions such as integrated care. We recommend that health managers and policy-makers should invest in delivery structures and skills and motivation of health professionals to improve the implementation of workforce changes in integrated chronic care interventions. Conclusion: The added value of the present study lies in its provision of information on which factors might mitigate the success of an intervention, which helps to prevent premature conclusions of ineffectiveness for complex interventions

Great expectations: The implementation of integrated care and its contribution to improved outcomes for people with chronic conditions

There are great expectations regarding the potential contribution of integrated care interventions to improved outcomes, but so far the evidence is mixed. In this dissertation, we focussed on why, when and how some integrated care interventions contribute to improved outcomes, while others do not. To this purpose, we developed the COMIC Model for studying the Context, Outcomes and Mechanisms of Integrated Care interventions. Evaluations that make use of the COMIC Model take into account the context in which an intervention is implemented and can thereby provide insights into why an intervention does (not) work and how the intervention and/or the context can be changed to achieve improved outcomes

Implementation of integrated care for diabetes mellitus type 2 by two Dutch care groups:A case study

Background Even though previous research has demonstrated improved outcomes of integrated care initiatives, it is not clear why and when integrated care works. This study aims to contribute to filling this knowledge gap by examining the implementation of integrated care for type 2 diabetes by two Dutch care groups. Methods An embedded single case study was conducted including 26 interviews with management staff, care purchasers and health professionals. The Context + Mechanism = Outcome Model was used to study the relationship between context factors, mechanisms and outcomes. Dutch integrated care involves care groups, bundled payments, patient involvement, health professional cooperation and task substitution, evidence-based care protocols and a shared clinical information system. Community involvement is not (yet) part of Dutch integrated care. Results Barriers to the implementation of integrated care included insufficient integration between the patient databases, decreased earnings for some health professionals, patients’ insufficient medical and policy-making expertise, resistance by general practitioner assistants due to perceived competition, too much care provided by practice nurses instead of general practitioners and the funding system incentivising the provision of care exactly as described in the care protocols. Facilitators included performance monitoring via the care chain information system, increased earnings for some health professionals, increased focus on self-management, innovators in primary and secondary care, diabetes nurses acting as integrators and financial incentives for guideline adherence. Economic and political context and health IT-related barriers were discussed as the most problematic areas of integrated care implementation. The implementation of integrated care led to improved communication and cooperation but also to insufficient and unnecessary care provision and deteriorated preconditions for person-centred care. Conclusions Dutch integrated diabetes care is still a work in progress, in the academic and the practice setting. This makes it difficult to establish whether overall quality of care has improved. Future efforts should focus on areas that this study found to be problematic or to not have received enough attention yet. Increased efforts are needed to improve the interoperability of the patient databases and to keep the negative consequences of the bundled payment system in check. Moreover, patient and community involvement should be incorporated

Integrated Care and the Health Workforce

As is the case for integrated care in general, workforce interventions need to be well planned, implemented, and evaluated. The journey to improved health outcomes by means of integrated care is a relatively recent one, but it has demonstrated that workforce changes form an area of attention that is essential for the understanding and success of integrated strategies as a whole. Even if integrated care should be surpassed by a superior approach in the future, workforce changes as part of complex improvement strategies will necessarily remain on the radar of every health care system working towards improved population health

Additional file 1: of Context, mechanisms and outcomes of integrated care for diabetes mellitus type 2: a systematic review

Study objective, follow-up period, setting, population, and outcomes of the included studies. (DOCX 68 kb