Impact of chronic disease integration strategies on healthcare outcomes and costs in Canada: A scoping review
Abstract
There has been a growing body of evidence suggesting that chronic care integration strategies can improve healthcare outcomes and decrease costs. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (2002), there is an opportunity to improve health care for chronic conditions and to curtail the growth in healthcare expenditures through integration and coordination. The purpose of this scoping review is to evaluate the impact of chronic disease integration strategies on healthcare outcomes and costs in Canada. For the purpose of this study, the words chronic disease, healthcare costs, integration and Canada were searched for in five peer-reviewed databases. The inclusion criteria included papers published from 2006 to 2020 in English. The results showed 37 papers that met the inclusion criteria, 51 per cent of which were published from 2006 to 2015 and 49 per cent from 2016 to 2020. The papers were critically appraised for quality (5 per cent strong, 11 per cent moderate, 16 per cent weak and 68 per cent not applicable); 35 per cent, however, were protocols and did not provide evidence. Only two papers demonstrated improved healthcare outcomes and decreased utilisation. Although there was insufficient evidence, this review contributes by highlighting the need to further implement chronic disease integration strategies to demonstrate healthcare outcomes and costs. This review identifies research gaps and provides directions for researchers and implications for healthcare managers and policymakers.
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Author's Biography
Grace Liu has worked as a physiotherapist, case manager, research analyst and policy analyst in various healthcare settings in Ontario, Canada. She has completed her BSc. Physiotherapy, Case Management Certificate and MBA and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Health Policy and Equity, focusing on health system transformation through cross-sectoral collaboration and integration. Grace is interested in developing innovative and sustainable strategies to improve the health care delivery system and patient experience.
Peter Tsasis Dr. Peter Tsasis is Associate Professor of Management and a health systems researcher with expertise in intersectoral collaboration, learning health systems and systems transformation. He has published in many peer-reviewed publications in a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary scholarly journals. His active research output has been disseminated in a multitude of international peer-reviewed conference presentations and invited symposia to showcase new paradigms in shifting attention to critical new areas of research.
Christo El Morr Dr. Christo El Morr is Associate Professor of Health Informatics, the Health Informatics Certificate Coordinator and former Undergraduate Program Director at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University; he is also a research scientist at North York General Hospital, Toronto. He has established cross-disciplinary research with the local community and industry partners as well as with international collaborators. His research covers eHealth (locally and globally) with a focus on health services (eg patient readmission), chronic disease management and the use of analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare improvement and equity.
Citation
Liu, Grace, Tsasis, Peter and Morr, Christo El (2021, June 1). Impact of chronic disease integration strategies on healthcare outcomes and costs in Canada: A scoping review. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 5, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/UMJB7839.
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