On behalf of Health Standards Organization (HSO) and our Integrated Health Technical Committee, I am pleased to introduce the world’s first co-designed, evidence-based standard on integrated people-centred care.
The evidence is clear: risk of adverse events are highest during care transitions and people with multiple health and social care needs frequently fall between the cracks of disjointed, provider-focused, and siloed care. This standard was created to help bridge the gaps and address these unmet needs. Learn more and access CAN/HSO 76000:2021 Integrated People-Centred Health Systems (IPCHS): https://healthstandards.org/integratedcare/.
An Integrated People-Centered health system is one with health and social services that are organized and managed across sectors and organizational boundaries so that people can receive coordinated and comprehensive services – at the right time, by the right provider in the right place.
The standard is structured around 10 design principles. These are the essential features that evidence from around the world and our consensus of experts say needs to be in place for any integrated health system. You’ll note that we embedded expectations on partnering with people throughout every design principle, which is consistent with our HSO approach to all standards.
This standard will help service planners and decision-makers move towards more integrated systems to:
- Improve population health,
- Provide better health care experiences,
- Increase engagement for clients and providers,
- Reduce the costs of care, and
- Improve the quality and safety of care.
To make the standard relevant and actionable in the real world, each design principle sets out explicit, objective criteria to work toward. The standard has 66 criteria in total that people can use as aspirational targets in their journey to a fully integrated health system. Guidance is available for each criteria to help policy makers and health system partners know what actions to take together as they set and advance their local priorities.
To find out more visit https://healthstandards.org/integratedcare/