Integrative and person-centred health care from a health system perspective

Abstract

Many health-care systems are confronted on the one hand side with the challenge to meet care demands of a continuously aging population that suffers from multiple and chronic diseases and, on the other hand side, to adapt health-care services to the preferences of the population. We analyse whether the German health-care system already pursues the objective to deliver integrated, person-centred, interdisciplinary and interprofessional health-care services and which prospects 'integrated and person-centred health care' offers. We performed a selective literature analysis. Different from the World Health Organisation or the Institute of Medicine, the German Social Code Book V does not pursue the objective of delivering person-centred health care. However, the introduction of integrated health-care services is explicitly enabled. Yet until now, only 10% of the population are encompassed by such health-care delivery concepts. Clear chances for integrated and person-centred health care exist, e. g., in reducing repeat diagnostic procedures, overcoming failures in communication and information exchange, and encouraging interprofessional health care delivery that up to now often encounter resistance of physicians. Legal provisions to reform the German health-care system in the direction of more integrative and person-centred health-care services are already partly in place. What is lacking is a broad implementation and evaluation of such a concept of health-care delivery that is advantageous for the system and preferred by the population.