The Development of the Integrated Healthcare Delivery Model

The convergence of growing medical complexity, aging population, and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, in addition to the rising technological costs in healthcare, are all placing a significant stress on the healthcare system. As a result, there is a need for reforms that address the problems of the more and more complex healthcare are simultaneously providing a high-quality care to meet the health and social needs of the patients. As such, health systems that can ensure fast and best healthcare services delivered at the lowest possible cost are becoming the need of the hour. In that sense, integrated healthcare delivery model is a viable solution that is increasingly sought after by the healthcare providers.

What is Integrated Healthcare Model?

Integrated healthcare delivery model is a concept that brings together healthcare data, delivery, management, and all organizational services related to diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation care, and health promotion into the continuum of care. The aim of integrating all healthcare services is to address the existing fragmentation in patient servicesand to enable better coordinationand more continuing care.

There are different forms of integration, described as horizontal and vertical models. When the integration occurs between healthcare providers at the same level of care, it is horizontal integration. For instance, centralization of specialist expertise within the regional care centers or merging primary care facilities to a spoke and hub model belongs to horizontal integration. When the integration occurs between different level of care with shared processes and m-EHR for primary/secondary care provision, it is called vertical integration. Integration in the health care is all about creating the structural links between all or most of the healthcare services, which were working separately. This includes everything from operational changes and process changes to physical co-location.

Integrating hospital systems for the reason of sharing medical histories, creating interdisciplinary medical teams and to update specialists or professionals on the latest medical research could help trim down the healthcare costs while simultaneously improving patient care. Integrated healthcare model can be achieved with a shared vision andcareful planning and financing focused on the target patient population.

Benefits of Integrated Healthcare

There needs to be a significant reform in integrating healthcare systems foran improvedoperational benefit and to support social care and rehabilitation. When executed the right way, integration of hospital services can help achieve prominent improvements in efficiency, quality,and cost control. Efficient integrated healthcare delivery model in multispecialty centers hold transparency in their connections with hospitals, labs, and pharmacies. In their effort to provide complete and comprehensive medical services, healthcare organizations provide everything from medical consultation or diagnosis to homecare and everything in between to consumers.

Integrated Healthcare Serves to Decrease the Healthcare Costs

Integrated healthcare delivery systemshave been developed to benefit both consumers and service providers in decreasing the overall healthcare costs. Integration of medical information and entire healthcare services can help reduce data redundancy and medical errors, save administrative and infrastructure cost of physical record maintenance, manage medical records with efficiency, and save duplicate tests and readmissions.

Moreover, the holistic disease management and prevention programs provided by integrated systems can enable cost reduction, it seemingly helps to transfer the duties of the doctors to trained health professionals. For instance, diabetes management no longer needs to be handled by specialist doctors but a team of nurses, educators, nutritionists, and other nurses, educators and nutritionists can very well help manage the problem by providing lifestyle training, mentoring, and thorough routine checkups to the patients, which otherwise were performed previously by qualified doctors at a much higher cost.

Promotes Better Health Outcomes

A critical part of integrated healthcare delivery systems is the accessibility of information.Since healthcare systems compile a large amount of comprehensive medical records over time, it is easier for the medical professionals to get access to the complete medical history of the patients, when they showup for consultation. Everything from previous checkups, lab test results, X-rays, prescribed drugs and diagnoses are right in front of the doctor’s desk through EHR. This can help benefit the doctors in having a complete picture of the patient's medical history and avoid unnecessary tests or prevent complicated problems like drug allergies, etc., leading to improved health outcomes.

Better data accessibility and availability of patient information anytime, anywhere through wireless technologies, handheld devices, and remote access can enhance the overall quality of healthcare provided and promote better clinical outcomes. Moreover, integrated information is advantageous for the healthcare providers, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, and others as it enables them in designing better products that cater to further improve the results.

Conclusion

Integrated healthcare delivery model is all about bringing improved efficiency and streamlined processes into the domain of healthcare. Integrating the entire healthcare system can make processes more efficient and accessible,which makesmaintaining or sharing of relevant informationmuch easier. However,a wider effort, from the part of the healthcare providers need to be made so as to achieve the goal of developing as well as making the integrated healthcare delivery model successful.

Overall, Integrated healthcare delivery model holds significant potential in improving healthcare outcomes, accessibility, and cost savings, and is thus, paving the way for increasing the overall healthcare experience for both consumers and providers.