Integrated Care Systems

Module Title: Integrated Care Systems 
ECTS: 10

Module Coordinators:
Dr Sarah Barry, Adjunct Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer, School of Population Health, RCSI

Dr PJ Harnett, Adjunct Associate Professor and National Clinical Programme (Older People), Health Services Executive

Module Description:
Integrated care is the preferred model of care espoused internationally and in national care systems as a major policy goal for 21st Century health and social care systems. This module will present the vision, approaches and frameworks underpinning integrated care and set these in the context of the challenges of delivering integrated care in practice, particularly for path dependent health and social care systems. The module will draw on key insights and frameworks from integrated care science, systems thinking, strategic, information and change management; improvement science, risk, quality and safety management. It will address related policy challenges and build on implementation science learning and how this has informed integrated care design, implementation and delivery. Students will appraise care delivery models and explore essential care delivery functions through the lens of integrated care. 

Module Objectives:
Delivered as composite components, the first part of the module will: 

• Introduce students to the principles, concepts and frameworks of integrated care.  
• Apply this knowledge to generate insights into current integrated care practices and case studies.  
• The second part of the module will: 
• Introduce students to the core challenges of integrated care delivery from the macro (policy and national operations) level to the local operational issues arising from integrated care implementation in practice.  
• Expose students to current integrated care themes and topics and explore real life case studies of integrated care implementation in health and social care systems, national and international. 
• Together, these composite elements will facilitate an appreciation of the rationale, science, approaches and challenges of integrated care delivery from a services, policy and ‘whole of health and social care system’ perspective. 

Module learning outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students should be able to: 

• Describe the vision, model, challenges and solutions for integrated care delivery in health and social care systems 
• Explore how integrated care concepts, frameworks and applications translate into practice using a care system functions approach as defined by the World Health Organisation 
• Identify and describe appropriate system level responses for the successful spread and scale of integrated care projects and programmes, highlighting innovation solutions to this challenge 
• Complete two evidence-with-practice exercises focused on integrated care delivery for assessment