Editorial - Vol 2, No 11:  Integrated Care – Development and Funding

This month’s edition of Healthcare Review – Online^TM is the fifth in a series focussing on integrated care. This edition is the first of two editions which will review issues around development and funding of integrated care.

Steve Anderson from the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit (CCMAU) considers the emergence of purchasing as a context for integrated care. He describes a possible approach to integrated care through delegated purchasing, using as an example, the experience of the former Central Regional Health Authority.

Mara Andrews, Senior Maori Development Manager, Maori Health Group, Central Region - a division of the Health Funding Authority, also considers the role of delegated purchasing in integrating care, and highlights the interest of Iwi and Maori health care organisations in the ability to become delegated purchasers. She reviews examples of development of Maori integrated care initiatives and discusses the Maori aspirations for integrated care.

Paul Brown, Portal Consulting and Associates, addresses in his paper the importance of evaluation in the development of integrated care. He points to the likely focus and challenges facing those evaluating integrated care initiatives, and summarises the skills needed to perform such evaluation.

This edition also includes an editorial overview from Associate Professor Ross McCormick, Acting Director, Goodfellow Unit, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Auckland.

Associate Professor McCormick highlights the drivers for integrated care from Government, provider and consumer perspectives. He outlines the need for clinical and public drivers to balance the structural and financial drivers for integrated care which are discussed in this month’s papers. According to McCormick, significant public and clinical input is needed in the planning, development, ownership and operation of integrated care projects to ensure a positive outcome in terms of health gain and efficiency.

Karen Wells of kpWells & Associates addresses the change processes needed for implementation of integrated care and also considers the development of integration alongside New Zealand’s integration policy.

A break from the integrated care series will take place in November when we review the Foresight project in health.

The next edition in the integrated care series of Healthcare Review - Online in October 1998 will consider information management in integrated care.