Exploration of understanding of integrated care from a public health perspective - A scoping review

Many health systems attempt to develop integrated and population health-oriented systems of care, but knowledge of strategies and frameworks/models to support this effort is lacking. The aim of the current paper is to investigate existing concepts of integrated care and their elements from a public health perspective and to propose a model that could be applied to analyze not only the Danish health agreements but be utilized in other countries as well. We applied a scoping review approach. A literature search was conducted in Embase, Medline, Cinahl, Scopus, and Web of Science for the period 2000-2020 yielding 16 studies for inclusion. Across the papers, 14 frameworks were identified. Nine of these referred to the Chronic Care Model (CCM). The main elements included service delivery, person-centeredness, IT systems design and utilization, and decision support. The improvement of integrated care is complex lacking consensus about a set of elements with the representation of public health elements. Integrated care frameworks/models are strongly context-bound; They need to account for the unique needs and characteristics of the population it aims to serve. In the present review, a model is proposed that could be applied to analyze integrated care in Denmark and beyond from a public health perspective.