A Prospective Validation Study of a Rainbow Model of Integrated Care Measurement Tool in Singapore.
BACKGROUND
The conceptual ambiguity of the integrated care concept precludes a full understanding of what constitutes a well-integrated health system, posing a significant challenge in measuring the level of integrated care. Most available measures have been developed from a disease-specific perspective and only measure certain aspects of integrated care. Based on the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care, which provides a detailed description of the complex concept of integrated care, a measurement tool has been developed to assess integrated care within a care system as a whole gathered from healthcare providers' and managerial perspectives. This paper describes the methodology of a study seeking to validate the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care measurement tool within and across the Singapore Regional Health System. The Singapore Regional Health System is a recent national strategy developed to provide a better-integrated health system to deliver seamless and person-focused care to patients through a network of providers within a specified geographical region.


METHODS
The validation process includes the assessment of the content of the measure and its psychometric properties.


CONCLUSIONS
If the measure is deemed to be valid, the study will provide the first opportunity to measure integrated care within Singapore Regional Health System with the results allowing insights in making recommendations for improving the Regional Health System and supporting international comparison.
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Milawaty
M
Nurjono
Scientific Centre for Care and Welfare (Tranzo), Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands; Jan van Es Institute, Netherlands Expert Centre Integrated Primary Care, Almere, The Netherlands.
Pim P
PP
Valentijn
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Mary Ann C
MA
Bautista
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Lim Yee
LY
Wei
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore; National University Health System, Singapore; Department of Patient and Care, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
Hubertus Johannes Maria
HJ
Vrijhoef
integrated care; measurement; validation