Application of a Mixed Methods Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Framework in Integrated Health Care

Background: Evaluating integrated care programs is complex. Integration benefits may not become apparent within short evaluation timeframes, and many programs provide a wide variety of health and non-health benefits. To address these challenges, we illustrate a mixed methods approach for evaluating multiple integrated care programs using multi-criteria decision analysis.

Methods: We adapted a decision support tool used by local decision makers to compare data extracted from 17 different integrated care evaluations. Criteria included impact on health services capacity, patient outcomes, integration of care, workforce development and implementation risk, weighted based on stakeholder preferences. Program benefits were compared to their implementation costs, and assessed using cost-effectiveness methods. Sensitivity analysis examined the impact of different criteria weights.

Results and discussion: This method captured a diverse range of benefits provided by integrated care programs and provided an accessible heuristic to compare many projects simultaneously. However, this approach may not be sensitive to the appropriateness of each criterion to the health system, the magnitude of difference in individual criteria, equity considerations or socio-political factors. Internal and external validation, especially for subjective criteria such as implementation risk, are needed.

Conclusions: This work offers a feasible, flexible and pragmatic approach for evaluating integrated care programs.