Key stakeholder experiences of an integrated healthcare pilot in Australia: a thematic analysis
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(2020) 20:925
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Key stakeholder experiences of an integrated healthcare pilot in Australia: a thematic analysis Steven A. Trankle1* , Tim Usherwood2,3,4, Penelope Abbott1, Mary Roberts2,3, Michael Crampton5, Christian M. Girgis2,3,6, John Riskallah7, Yashu Chang1,7, Jaspreet Saini5 and Jennifer Reath1
Abstract Background: In Australia and other developed countries, chronic illness prevalence is increasing, as are costs of healthcare, particularly hospital-based care. Integrating healthcare and supporting illness management in the community can be a means of preventing illness, improving outcomes and reducing unnecessary hospitalisation. Western Sydney has high rates of diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases and the NSW State Ministry of Health funded a range of key strategies through the Western Sydney Integrated Care Program (WSICP) to integrate care across hospital and community settings for patients with these illnesses. Complementing our previously reported analysis related to specific WSICP strategies, this research provided information concerning overall experiences and perspectives of WSICP implementation and integrated care generally. Methods: We administered 125 in-depth interviews in two rounds over 12 months with 83 participants including patients and their carers, care facilitators, hospital specialists and nurses, allied health professionals, general practitioners and primary care nurses, and program managers. Half of the participants (n = 42) were interviewed twice. We conducted an inductive, thematic analysis on the interview transcripts. Results: Key themes related to the set-up and operationalising of WSICP; challenges encountered; and the added value of the program. Implementing WSICP was a large and time consuming undertaking but challenges including those with staffing and information technology were being addressed. The WSICP was considered valuable in reducing hospital admissions due to improved patient self-management and a focus on prevention, greater communication and collaboration between healthcare providers across health sectors and an increased capacity to manage chronic illness in the primary care setting. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department General Practice, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Building 30.3.18 Campbelltown Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.
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