Imperial College London
Alternate

DrMariaWoloshynowych

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer

Honorary Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3427m.woloshynowych

 
 
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Location

 

Medical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@inproceedings{Woloshynowych:2006,
author = {Woloshynowych, M and Freeman, G and Baker, R and Boulton, M and Guthrie, B and Car, J and Haggerty, J},
title = {Six years of Continuity of Care research: Emerging lessons from the English NHS.},
year = {2006}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - IntroductionContinuity of Care – or the lack of it - continues to challenge both users and service providers all over the developed world. Continuity was one of the first concerns raised at the SDO’s original listening exercise in 1999 in the context of increasing complexity of care delivery, both technical and particularly organisational. We have been reviewing the SDO’s five year continuity of care research programme. This (together with a parallel CHSRF programme) is one of the largest of its kind, focussing on the users’ experience and on longitudinal projects.MethodWe have visited each of the five largest projects (three still in progress) and read all available protocols, reports, presentations and publications. We have collaborated with the lead reviewer of the Canadian programme and briefly reviewed the continuity literature since 2000.FindingsThe emphasis on user experience is timely and welcome. It has thrown up some surprises – both methodological and in interpretation. It seems that some users find it difficult to conceptualise continuity (whether relational, managerial or informational) as distinct from other aspects of care delivery and this has been a serious challenge to designers of user centred measures. There are distinct differences between different health fields – particularly between mental health, chronic disease care in hospitals and in primary care. A common theme is the adverse effect of service reorganisation on continuity. There is a strongly positive association between all forms of continuity and satisfaction and still no clear evidence whether relationship continuity improves health outcomes.ImplicationsInvolving users has opened up important new perspectives, but also raised new methodological challenges. Policy makers and service providers need to give higher priority to continuity of care when planning organisational change. Continuity is a significant element of user satisfaction. The next prior
AU  - Woloshynowych,M
AU  - Freeman,G
AU  - Baker,R
AU  - Boulton,M
AU  - Guthrie,B
AU  - Car,J
AU  - Haggerty,J
PY  - 2006///
TI  - Six years of Continuity of Care research: Emerging lessons from the English NHS.
ER  -
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