Abstract
Despite the importance of continuity of care and patient engagement, few studies have captured patients' views on integrated care. This study assesses patient experience in the Integrated Care Pilot in North West London with the aim to help clinicians and policymakers understand patients' acceptability of integrated care and design future initiatives. A survey was developed, validated and distributed to 2029 randomly selected practice patients identified as having a care plan. A total of 405 questionnaires were included for analysis. Respondents identified a number of benefits associated with the pilot, including increased patient involvement in decision-making, improved patient-provider relationship, better organisation and access to care, and enhanced inter-professional communication. However, only 22.4% were aware of having a care plan, and of these only 37.9% had a copy of the care plan. Knowledge of care plans was significantly associated with a more positive experience. This study reinforces the view that integrated care can improve quality of care and patient experience. However, care planning was a complex and technically challenging process that occurred more slowly than planned with wide variation in quality and time of recruitment to the pilot, making it difficult to assess the sustainability of benefits.
Highlights
Despite the importance of continuity of care and patient engagement, few studies have captured patients’ views on integrated care
As the emphasis of integrated care is on improving quality of care and patient experience, there is a pressing need for research that captures and discusses the perceptions of patients in relation to numerous aspects of care
This study examines patient experience with the Integrated Care Pilot in North West London, though some of its results mirror that of studies worldwide
Summary
Despite the importance of continuity of care and patient engagement, few studies have captured patients’ views on integrated care. Respondents identified a number of benefits associated with the pilot, including increased patient involvement in decision-making, improved patient–provider relationship, better organisation and access to care, and enhanced inter-professional communication. Conclusions: This study reinforces the view that integrated care can improve quality of care and patient experience. Health care systems often fail to achieve continuity, resulting in poor quality of care, service duplication, extra costs and compromised patient safety [2]. Integrated care has the potential to improve continuity of care and enhance quality, safety, cost-effectiveness and access to services [3,4,5,6,7,8]. As the emphasis of integrated care is on improving quality of care and patient experience, there is a pressing need for research that captures and discusses the perceptions of patients in relation to numerous aspects of care
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