Linked Care Evaluation Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Coordinated Care Trial, Local Evaluation Service Provider Experience Report

Abstract

The Linked Care Trial was an innovative approach to linking health and community care services for people in need of ongoing care, established in 1996-97 in the municipalities of Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai in Sydney’s northern suburbs. The trial formed part of a national program of Coordinated Care Trials established in 1996 to test whether it is possible to coordinate the care currently provided by a variety of different health and community care services and practitioners using funds pooled from a number of different Commonwealth and State programs. This flexible use of funding was to be managed by care coordinators (CCs) assigned to each participant, using an individual care plan to help organise the medical care and social assistance that each would receive. The Evaluation of the Linked Care Trial was to test whether this approach could be practically implemented in the local community and, if so, to determine whether this led to a more effective use of existing resources with improved outcomes for participants and caregivers. This service provider experience thematic report reviews progress with Linked Care and the evaluation from commencement of the Live Phase of the trial in 1997 to its formal conclusion in December 1999. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data collected as part of the Local Evaluation, the report presents an analysis of findings with respect to a number of separate components of Linked Care. It also identifies the conditions which underlie the achievements of Linked Care in this period and considers obstacles that have constrained the achievement of trial goals or which could have affected the evaluation. Service providers were integral to Linked Care as partners in Linked Care management, contributors to the fund pool, subcontractors of care coordination services and the providers of health and community care to the participants