Integrated Care Needs Integrated IT

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Article Date: 24 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Integrated care needs more than good quality information on population health data, outcomes and evaluation. Integration of healthcare can only succeed if it is supported by integrated IT systems.

That is the message from the NHS Alliance in a new paper: Integrated care organisations: the importance of integrated information systems. It looks at the systems in use by Kaiser Permante in the USA, compares them with the UK systems and considers the needs of the new Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs), announced by the Darzi report in July 2008.

The report's authors are IT specialist and healthcare management consultant David Kwo and Dr Minoo Irani, the NHS Alliance lead for specialists working in primary care. They say that both the Department of Health and individual PCTs should ensure that integrated systems are part of the selection criteria for the ICO pilots. At the same time, Connecting for Health needs to make sure that the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) can deliver support to local ICOs

Those preparing bids for the ICO pilots are urged to include robust integrated patient record (EPR) systems in their project designs and bids. They should operate seamlessly across primary, community, acute and social care boundaries, link to chronic disease registries and provide embedded clinical protocols that produce real-time alerts and reminders at the patient level. More detail is provided in the paper.

"Integrated information systems enable clinicians to work in virtual teams to deliver patient care across different care settings", David Kwo says. "They are particularly important in chronic care and in treating patients with co-morbidity because they allow clinicians and managers to generate complex information to drive commissioning, outcomes measurement and research.

Dr Minoo Irani agrees. He said:

"Perhaps the most important benefit is that integrated EPR systems help to make the patient experience seamless across the entire care continuum. That is almost impossible without them.

"No matter who leads ICOs, what model is adopted or what their scope, robust integrated information systems are essential to making sure care is delivered in new and better ways at the patient level." Mr Kwo and Dr Irani have identified the technical options for developing integrated information systems for local ICOs. These will be described in a subsequent paper. Copies of Integrated care organisations: the importance of integrated information systems are available from the NHS Alliance: 01777 869080 or office@nhsalliance.org

Notes

1. The NHS Alliance is a collaboration of clinicians, managers and board members who put patients first. It is the independent body that represents NHS primary care. Values based, it is the only organisation that brings together PCTs with GP practices, clinicians with managers and Board members, and NHS primary care with its patients. The Alliance membership and its hard working national executive is fully multi-professional.

NHS Alliance