Integrated care
Key words for working in Integrated care
Integrated care, community care, patient-centred care, hospital at home, early supported discharge
Background
The concept of integrated care is one which causes much confusion and misunderstanding.1 It is a relatively new term and new area of expertise in respiratory medicine. Integrated care has been defined by the BTS integrated care working party as follows:
“Integrated Care is the organisation and management of a health service such that people receive safe and effective care by the most appropriate health professional at the optimal time and in the most appropriate environment. Such care should be offered with a patient centred and compassionate focus and achieve the desired results in a cost effective manner. The integration of care should involve healthcare, whether hospital centric or within the community, and social care.”2
Patients with chronic disease often experience care in fragmented ways, coming from multiple settings such as primary and secondary care, mental health teams, social services, private providers and voluntary services.3 Improving care for patients with chronic respiratory disease requires pro-actively “joining up” these ways of working in an integrated way.
“I feel that this post is making more of an impact into maintaining the respiratory health of the community than I ever did just working in secondary care alone, and as a consequence, far more rewarding”Dr Vince Mak
the importance of research in *subspeciality*
Evidence shows that integrated care can improve quality and reduce waste, and integrated care is increasingly being recognised as an exciting area to work in and “the future of respiratory medicine”.4Far more work is needed though to demonstrate the benefits of the specialty, both in terms of cost-effectiveness and patient-centred outcomes.
what does the day to day role involve?
The day-to-day role can be very varied. The large majority of integrated care physicians maintain their inpatient work so they can act as an effective interface between hospital and community. Other tasks may include virtual clinics at GP surgeries, providing education to community workers, close working with CCGs and attending MDTs. The BTS website has a range of stories from people working in integrated care.
what skills do i need? how do i become a *subspeciality* physician?
Integrated care require its own set of unique skills. The BTS have put together a list of learning outcomes for those interested in integrated care – download from here.
inspired? how do i find out more?
The British Thoracic society have put together lots of useful resources on integrated care, including what jobs in integrated care are like1 and how to develop your skills with their extended integrated care curriculum4. You can also find out what’s new by searching the integrated care section of our forum.
References:
Page 1 of 2Written by Dr xxx xxxx. Last updated xx/xx/xx