Integrated care needs integrated information management and technology

Healthc Q. 2009:13 Spec No:24-9. doi: 10.12927/hcq.2009.21093.

Abstract

Integrated care entails that professionals from different organizations have to work together in a team-oriented way to provide high-quality care for a patient. This requires that healthcare professionals share information about--and with--patients at appropriate points in the care or treatment process. The necessary infrastructural arrangements--such as shared patient records, regional collaboration and a clear, transparent incentive structure--must be in place. It is increasingly hard to imagine integrative initiatives without a strong information management and technology component. However, information is a necessary condition but not sufficient to achieve integrated care; organizational change is the more critical component.

MeSH terms

  • Canada
  • Case Management
  • Clinical Protocols
  • Computer Communication Networks / organization & administration
  • Continuity of Patient Care / organization & administration*
  • Electronic Health Records / organization & administration*
  • Health Care Reform
  • Health Records, Personal
  • Humans
  • Information Management / organization & administration*
  • Information Storage and Retrieval / methods
  • Information Systems / organization & administration*
  • Medical Record Linkage / methods
  • Systems Integration*
  • United States