Dr Viktoria Stein was an international expert for the development of an Integrated Care Standard and Guideline being introduced by the Health Standards Organization for Accreditation Canada.
This new accreditation guideline is currently in public consultation, and once officially approved, will be the first in the world to set out how integrated care can be accredited and regulated.
Dr Stein said: “We do have Integrated Care guidelines available already. In England the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, and in Scotland SCIE provide integrated care guidelines, but those are specific for a disease like dementia and follow a care pathway. What’s so different about this Canadian one, is that it tries to set out standards for integrated care organisations, and the core principles and elements they need to demonstrate in order to be accredited as such. Similar efforts are known from the Netherlands and Wales, but another unique feature of the Canadian standard is that it was formulated in a way, that it can be transferred to other systems and used in different contexts.”
As regulators and accreditation organisations are trying to catch up with the developments in integrated care, IFIC is providing a platform for their discussions and exchange of experiences by supporting the set-up of a SIG Accreditation and Regulation. This is led by colleagues from the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate.