Building Bridges to Integrate Care (BRIDGES): Incubating Health Service Innovation across the Continuum of Care for Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions

Healthc Q. 2016;19(2):60-66. doi: 10.12927/hcq.2016.24701.

Abstract

Integrating care for people with complex needs is challenging. Indeed, evidence of solutions is mixed, and therefore, well-designed, shared evaluation approaches are needed to create cumulative learning. The Toronto-based Building Bridges to Integrate Care (BRIDGES) collaborative provided resources to refine and test nine new models linking primary, hospital and community care. It used mixed methods, a cross-project meta-evaluation and shared outcome measures. Given the range of skills required to develop effective interventions, a novel incubator was used to test and spread opportunities for system integration that included operational expertise and support for evaluation and process improvement.

MeSH terms

  • Continuity of Patient Care
  • Delivery of Health Care / organization & administration
  • Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / methods*
  • Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / organization & administration*
  • Humans
  • Multiple Chronic Conditions*
  • Ontario
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care
  • Program Evaluation