Continuity and coordination of care

Practice brief on “Continuity and coordination of care” and updated version of the advocacy brief on the IPCHS Framework 

The World Health Organization (WHO) have circulated a practice brief on continuity and coordination of care as part of the series of support technical products and tools to drive country implementation of the Framework on integrated people-centred health services (IPCHS) approved by the World Health Assembly in 2016.

This brief highlights the broad and overlapping nature of these two concepts that can improve the experience of people with chronic care and support needs, enhance provider experience, improve health outcomes and increase health system performance. It provides a taxonomy and priority practice interventions for health managers and practitioners, with a focus on practical actions that can support implementation of these practices. Moreover, it includes thirty global practice examples that have shown impact at the micro, meso and/or macro level. The development of this document has been led by WHO staff from HQ with the principal writing team consisting of staff from the International Centre for Integrated Care at the University of the West of Scotland.

Also circulated was an updated version of the advocacy brief on the IPCHS Framework which aims to explain to policy and decision-makers working at national and sub-national levels the WHO’s ambitious agenda for service delivery reform in the context of health systems, UHC and the SDGs in a short and easy-to-read way.