What does the Joint Commission mean by "Integrated Care"?

The concept of "Integrated Care" as defined by the Joint Commission refers to a holistic approach where healthcare services are coordinated across various providers and facilities to ensure streamlined patient care. This model emphasizes the importance of collaboration among different specialties and organizations to provide continuous and comprehensive care for patients.

By facilitating seamless communication and a shared understanding of patient needs, integrated care minimizes fragmentation in healthcare, allowing for more effective treatment and better patient outcomes. This collaboration may involve sharing health information, treatment plans, and follow-up care, linking different levels of healthcare services, including primary care, specialty care, and community services.

The other options do not fully encapsulate the comprehensive vision of integrated care: collaboration between medical and financial departments focuses more on administrative functions, individual care plans at one location suggest a lack of coordination with other facilities, and health education for patients, while valuable, is only a small component of the broader integrated care framework.