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It seems impossible to create a comprehensive evaluation model which fully takes into account the multi‐dimensional context of integrated health and social care. Clinical integration, as a prerequisite for efficient outcomes of integration, must nonetheless get special attention. For more extensive evaluations, a quality chain matrix, including co‐operating acts by different providers, has proven to be useful. Examples of evaluated services in Sweden are given, and the management benefits of the use of evaluation data are highlighted.

This paper reviews the evidence base for vertical integration in health care. We describe its impact on organisational structures, on how services are provided, and on such outcomes as cost, clinical outcomes and patient experience. We also outline conditions that support successful integration.

This paper reports on experience in making use of Health Act flexibilities and care trusts. Three areas were chosen for study because they were known to have attached priority to health and social care integration and were at the leading edge of development. Drawing on discussions at a series of seminars at which the experience of each area was presented and reviewed, the paper identifies a number of emerging lessons for the future of integration in a context in which the Government has established a Minister‐led review to explore what more needs to be done to encourage integration.

To examine the evolution of health care integration strategies and associated conceptualization and practice through a review and synthesis of over 25 years of international academic research and literature.

A search of the health sciences literature was conducted using PubMed and EMBASE. A total of 114 articles were identified for inclusion and thematically analyzed using a strategy content model for systems-level integration.

Six major, inter-related shifts in integration strategies were identified: (1) from a focus on horizontal integration to an emphasis on vertical integration; (2) from acute care and institution-centered models of integration to a broader focus on community-based health and social services; (3) from economic arguments for integration to an emphasis on improving quality of care and creating value; (4) from evaluations of integration using an organizational perspective to an emerging interest in patient-centered measures; (5) from a focus on modifying organizational and environmental structures to an emphasis on changing ways of working and influencing underlying cultural attitudes and norms; and (6) from integration for all patients within defined regions to a strategic focus on integrating care for specific populations. We propose that underlying many of these shifts is a growing recognition of the value of understanding health care delivery and integration as processes situated in Complex-Adaptive Systems (CAS).

This review builds a descriptive framework against which to assess, compare, and track integration strategies over time.

Health service organizations and professionals are under increasing pressure to work together to deliver integrated patient care. A common understanding of integration strategies may facilitate the delivery of integrated care across inter‐organizational and inter‐professional boundaries. This paper aims to build a framework for exploring and potentially aligning multiple stakeholder perspectives of systems integration.

The authors draw from the literature on shared mental models, strategic management and change, framing, stakeholder management, and systems theory to develop a new construct, Mental Models of Integrated Care (MMIC), which consists of three types of mental models, i.e. integration‐task, system‐role, and integration‐belief.

The MMIC construct encompasses many of the known barriers and enablers to integrating care while also providing a comprehensive, theory‐based framework of psychological factors that may influence inter‐organizational and inter‐professional relations. While the existing literature on integration focuses on optimizing structures and processes, the MMIC construct emphasizes the convergence and divergence of stakeholders' knowledge and beliefs, and how these underlying cognitions influence interactions (or lack thereof) across the continuum of care.

MMIC may help to: explain what differentiates effective from ineffective integration initiatives; determine system readiness to integrate; diagnose integration problems; and develop interventions for enhancing integrative processes and ultimately the delivery of integrated care.

Global interest and ongoing challenges in integrating care underline the need for research on the mental models that characterize the behaviors of actors within health systems; the proposed framework offers a starting point for applying a cognitive perspective to health systems integration.

The purpose of this paper is to outline relevant policies on the integration of health and social care (HSC) in the four home nations: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England and offer a comparison of emphasis and approaches and draw out general insights on the implementation of integrated care policy.

The paper is written as a piece of critical reflection by drawing on the authors’ knowledge and expertise and wider evidence where available.

Since 2010, HSC integration has started to diverge significantly in the four constituent countries of the UK. Although England and Wales have undergone considerable re-organisation of the NHS, Scotland and Northern Ireland have largely been marked by organisational continuity. However, beyond organisational differences, policy approaches, policy emphases and implementation strategies have also started to show considerable dissimilarity across the UK. An important contributory factor may be different ideological perspectives on the role of competition and pilots, partnership, patient choice and organisational incentives to bring about change in the field.

The paper identifies a serious lack of comparative research in integration policy, despite the considerable opportunities for quasi-experimental studies. This lack of empirical research impedes shared learning across the home nations.

The paper presents a descriptive comparison of current integration policy between HSC providers in the four home nations. It reveals considerable opportunities for further research and comparative modelling of integration approaches.

Health care integration is crucial in improving service equality and patient outcomes. However, measuring integration between the health and social care sectors remains challenging. This article aims to review existing systematic models to identify alternative health and social care integration measurement tools. The review focuses on models that involve systematic planning and long-term cooperation across different organizational sectors.

The study examines various dimensions and elements of integration, including process, outcome and structural measures. It compares different tools used to measure social and health care integration, such as the Rainbow model, Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Scorecard, PRISMA, SCIROCCO, integRATE, health-data simulation (HSIM) and the model developed by Åhgren and Axelsson. The analysis includes both empirical studies and theoretical frameworks.

The findings highlight the importance of standardized measurement methods to assess the impact of integration initiatives on patient outcomes, healthcare costs and the quality of care.

The review contributes to the ongoing discourse on social and health care integration, particularly in the Nordic context. The results can inform social and healthcare providers, policymakers and researchers in evaluating and improving integration initiatives.

This study identifies and synthesizes existing literature on the integration of diabetic and dental services and explores a service integration model for optimising diabetic patient health outcomes and improving healthcare systems in low and middle-income countries.

Peer-reviewed literature that analysed the integration of health services regarding dental and medical services were reviewed. The articles were identified using the Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, CINAHL Complete, Google Scholar and MEDLINE databases and screened using the PRISMA guidelines.

A total of 40 full-text articles were examined for eligibility out of which 26 were selected for analysis. Diabetes was shown to contribute significantly to the global disease burden and this is also reflected in most low and middle-income countries. It is found that the integration of medical and dental services could help alleviate this burden. Hence, locally adapted Rainbow-Modified Integrated Care model is proposed to fill this integration gap.

The integration of dental and medical services has been proven to be useful in improving diabetic patient outcomes. Hence, the need to facilitate cross-professional collaboration between dentists and physicians cannot be overemphasised and this can be extended and locally adapted by different health systems across the world.

The integration of dental and diabetic services using models such as the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care is recommended to optimise health outcomes of diabetic patients and enhancing service delivery, especially in resource-poor healthcare systems.

To investigate the effects of payor–provider integration on the operational performance of health service provision. The research explores whether integration governs agency problems and tilts the incentives of diverse actors toward more systematic outcomes.

A two stage multimethod case study of occupational health services. A qualitative stage aimed to understand the reasons, mechanisms, and outcomes of payor–provider integration. A quantitative stage evaluated the performance of the integrated hospital against fee-for-service partner hospitals with a sample of 2,726 patients.

Payor–provider integration mitigates agency problems on multiple levels of the service system by complementing formal governance mechanisms with informal mechanisms. Compared to partner hospitals, the integrated hospital yielded 9% lower the total costs of occupational injuries achieved primarily by emphasizing conservative care and faster recovery.

Focuses on occupational health services in Finland. Provides initial evidence of the effects of payor–provider integration on the operational performance.

Vertical integration may provide systematic outcomes but requires mindful implementation of multiple mechanisms. Rigorous change management initiative is advised.

For patients, the research shows payor–provider integration of health services can be implemented in a manner that it reduces care costs while not compromising care quality and customer satisfaction.

This study provides a rare longitudinal analysis of payor–provider integration in health-care operations management. The study adds to the knowledge of operational performance improvement of health services.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential for service integration by focusing at the level of the individual rather than through structural integration or care coordination. The paper illustrates the potential for integration through the experience of the personal health budgets pilot programme.

This paper is based on a review of the experience of personal health budget pilot sites, drawing on the national evaluation of the pilot programme and the author's experience of working with pilot sites between 2010 and 2013. It also draws on the experience of similar programmes in the USA.

Personal health budgets support integration in two distinct ways. First, they can support the delivery of more holistic, whole‐person care in line with the principles of shared decision making. Second, by bringing personal budgets in social care and personal health budgets together, they can provide a vehicle for integration across health and social care systems. If integration starts from, and responds to, what matters most to individuals rather than with the development of joint structures and processes, the result is more likely to be integrated care.

This is one of only a small number of papers that discusses the scope for personal health budgets to improve the integration of care. Integration between the NHS and social care, in particular, has been identified as a central priority for the NHS.