This 20th Anniversary Edition presents a series of policy papers which review progress with integrated care from countries and regions from across the world. To introduce the article, lead authors have provided a talking head of the main achievements and points of learning for other health and care systems.

Policy papers

Integrated Health and Social Care in England: Ten Years On

Authors: Robin Miller, Jon Glasby, Helen Dickinson

As part of major policy reforms begun in 2010, England introduced a wave of initiatives to encourage more integrated care between health and social care. These built on previous attempts which sought to achieve similar objectives through a focus on better partnership working. This article provides an overview and critical commentary on integrated care policy in England from 2010–2020 based on reviews by regulators, parliamentary committees and the national audit office.

Policy papers

Integrated Care in England – what can we Learn from a Decade of National Pilot Programmes?

Authors: Richard Q. Lewis, Kath Checkland, Mary Alison Durand, Tom Ling, Nicholas Mays, Martin Roland, Judith A. Smith

For more than a decade the English NHS has pursued integrated care through three national pilot programmes. The independent evaluators of these programmes here identify several common themes that inform the development of integrated care.

Policy papers

Health and Social Care Reform in Scotland – What Next?

Authors: Anne Hendry , Maimie Thompson, Peter Knight, Eleanor McCallum, Alison Taylor, Helen Rainey, Andrew Strong

This paper analyses the important enablers, barriers and impacts of country-wide implementation of integrated health and social care in Scotland. It offers insights for other systems seeking to advance similar policy and practice. Landmark legislation was based on a shared vision and narrative about improving outcomes for people and communities. Implementation has involved coordination of multiple policies and interventions for different life stages, care groups, care settings and local context within a dynamic and complex system.

Research & Theory

What Makes Integration of Chronic Care so Difficult? A Macro-Level Analysis of Barriers and Facilitators in Belgium

Authors: Katrien Danhieux , Monika Martens, Elien Colman, Edwin Wouters, Roy Remmen, Josefien van Olmen, Sibyl Anthierens

Although many countries have been implementing integrated care, the scale-up remains difficult. Macro-level system barriers play an important role. By selecting three key policies, which have implemented integrated care in Belgium over the last 10 years, we aim to go beyond the identification of their specific barriers and facilitators to obtain an overarching generic view.

Policy papers

Integrated Health and Social Care in the United States: A Decade of Policy Progress

Authors: Sahil Sandhu, Anu Sharma, Rushina Cholera, Janet Prvu Bettger

Over the last decade in the United States (US), the burden of chronic disease, health care costs, and fragmented care delivery have increased at alarming rates. To address these challenges, policymakers have prioritized new payment and delivery models to incentivize better integrated health and social services. This paper outlines three major national and state policy initiatives to improve integrated health and social care over the last ten years in the US, with a focus on the Medicaid public insurance program for Americans with low incomes.

Policy papers

Integrated Care in Switzerland: Strengths and Weaknesses of a Federal System

Authors: Séverine Schusselé Filliettaz , Peter Berchtold, Ursula Koch, Isabelle Peytremann-Bridevaux

Switzerland’s fragmented healthcare system mirrors its federal structure and mix of cultures and languages. Although the Swiss have a higher life expectancy than most of their neighbours, their healthcare system faces similar challenges that call for more integrated care (IC). This article aims to provide insight into the specificities of and latest developments in Switzerland’s healthcare system and how they may have influenced the development and implementation of IC there

Policy papers

Does Integrated Care Carry the Gene of Bureaucracy? Lessons from the Case of Québec

Authors: Yves Couturier, Paul Wankah, Maxime Guillette, Louise Belzile

Demographic and epidemiological transitions of industralized countries mean health systems have to integrate health and social services to respond to the changing needs of their populations. Efforts to integrate care involve important policy and structural changes. This paper examines whether integration efforts are lost in translation during the bureaucratic appropriation of models, or, in an allegorical way, do they reveal genes of bureaucracy?

Policy papers

Facilitating Integration Through Team-Based Primary Healthcare: A Cross-Case Policy Analysis of Four Canadian Provinces

Authors: Alexandra Lukey, Sharon Johnston, Stephanie Montesanti, Catherine Donnelly, Paul Wankah, Mylaine Breton, Isabelle Gaboury, Simone Parniak, Caille Pritchard, Shannon Berg, Karin Maiwald, Sara Mallinson, Lee A. Green, Nelly D. Oelke

Team-based care can improve integrated health services by increasing comprehensiveness and continuity of care in primary healthcare (PHC) settings. Collaborative models involving providers from different professions can help to achieve coordinated, high-quality person-centred care. In Canada, there has been variation in both the timing/pace of adoption and approach to interprofessional PHC (IPHC) policy. Provinces are at different stages in the development, implementation, and evaluation of team-based PHC models. This paper describes how different policies, contexts, and innovations across four Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec) facilitate or limit integrated health services through IPHC teams.

International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC)

The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis. It gained an impact rating of 2.913 (2021)*

Established in 2000, IJIC’s mission is to promote integrated care as a scientific discipline. IJIC’s primary purpose is to examine critically the policy and practice of integrated care and whether and how this has impacted on quality-of-care, user experiences, and cost-effectiveness.

The journal regularly publishes conference supplements and special themed editions. To find out more contact Managing Editor, Susan Royer.

The Journal is supported by the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)