Effective Inter-agency working in Healthcare Health, Medicine Essay

Effective Inter-Agency Working In Healthcare
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Effective Inter-Agency Working In Healthcare
Introduction
The idea of inter-agency working in health and social care has become common in the developed world. The concept denotes the process where agencies join together to solve an interdependent problem (Green & Johnson, 2015). The aim of the collaboration is to improve the health and social services offered to the target audience. In other words, collaboration occurs where individuals from different agencies work together to meet the health and social needs of the people. The inter-agency collaboration seeks to replace the conventional single service models where organizations work in isolation (Nancarrow et al., 2013). Such organizations are characterized by vertical authority and top-down administrative actions. However, there has been a shift from such an approach to a horizontal relational axis. Here, agencies establish contractual relations like those fund in service agreements. In essence, inter-agency collaboration brings together different stakeholders (Roberts & O'Connor, 2007). Health and social care is a function of multiple organizations. It is not possible for a single agency to meet the needs of the population in isolation.
The main driver to the current move to health and social care integration in Scotland is the need to have a functioning system (Robertson, 2011). In the developed world, the need to have efficient healthcare and social systems have prompted the formulation of measures and policies to achieve this goal. Scotland, in particular, has well-established health and social care systems (Stephen, Lerpiniere, Young & Welch, 2015). Here, both governmental and non-governmental agencies offer a range of services. Over the years, these services have evolved with their policy orientations and program approaches. Traditionally, these agencies have been oriented towards single-focused functionalities. As a result, funding approaches have been directed towards specific operations as opposed to a particular cross-cutting issue (World Health Organization, 2018). However, the need to offer better health and social care services has challenged the ability of these “siloed” initiatives. In Scotland, the failure of health and social care programs to solve problems has caused widespread calls for service integration and cross-agency working (Atkinson, Jones & Lamont, 2007). At the same time, the demand for inter-agency collaboration has been accelerated by the introduction of network-style of service delivery. In Scotland, such collaborative approaches to the delivery of services are argued to be as vehicles for attaining integrated service provision (Ham, Heenan, Longley & Steel, 2013). The essence of inter-agency working has been to overcome entrenched power concentrations in health and social care agencies. Such collaborations have been critical in the provision of complex services and improving the outcomes of the individuals receiving the services.
The aim of this essay is to demonstrate how inter-agency collaboration could enhance patient-centered care for older adults in Scotland.
Older adults in Scotland
The number of older adults in Scotland has been increasing over the years (Robertson et al., 2016). The improvement in healthcare has led to a longer lifespan for a majority of individuals. This has, however, been accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases. Some of the common problems among older adults include heart disease, diabetes, and a higher level of comorbidity among others (Halter et al., 2014). This implies that a healthcare system that was initially meant for the treatment of acute conditions needs to undergo massive transformations to accommodate the increasing number of older adults with chronic diseases.
The increase in the number of older adults with chronic illnesses has prompted the emergence of multiple providers and agencies (McPhail, 2016). The move has caused the fragmentation and disorganization of service delivery to the particular population. The varying consumer needs, provider models, bureaucratic authority and state regulation have made it challenging for different agencies to come together to offer better services to older adults. Furthermore, health and social care organizations may find it challenging to look outside their scope to fill the gaps that emerge in the continuum of long-term care (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).
The essence of inter-agency collaboration
Collaboration among agencies would ensure the balancing of the interests of the stakeholders. The provision of health and social care requires the involvement of different agencies (Winters et al., 2016). The stakeholders, in this case, include family members, federal funders, medical practitioner groups, community-based agencies, and healthcare organizations. The different stakeholders have different vested interests in older adult health and social care. Inter-agency collaboration is an effective way of meeting the various interests of the agencies (Connelly, 2013). As the agencies work together, it becomes easy to execute their mandate. Given that the individual agencies are concerned about improving the health and social outcomes of the older adults, it would be critical for agencies to come together to identify ways of executing their mandate.
Additionally, interagency collaboration is critical for channeling resources together for the benefit of older adults (McDonald & Rosier, 2011). The various agencies have different capabilities which need to be put into productive partnerships. Older adults face various challenges including financial constraints, chronic medical conditions, and the absence of social support and accessibility of proper housing services among others. When two or more agencies work together, they increase the public value by working together rather than doing it separately (Green & Johnson, 2015). The services are linked together in such a way that entry into the collaborative system allows the clients to access all the resources available among the different health and social care organizations. In other words, inter-agency collaboration would allow different agencies to pool their intellectual and institutional resources to ensure seamless service delivery to older adults in Scotland (Ham et al., 2013).
Furthermore, inter-agency collaboration is needed for the sharing of knowledge (Hogg, Johnson, Daniel & Ferguson, 2009). Usually, different agencies have information regarding an aspect of care for older adults. This information may not reach another agency which requires it to function better. However, when agencies collaborate, information flows easily (Vermeir et al., 2015). The sharing of knowledge facilitates the formulation of policies and actions that work best for older adults. In Scotland, agencies need to come together and share the information they have. This will facilitate decision-making processes that are data-driven. For instance, when nursing homes work with a government agency, it will be easier for the government organization to formulate policies that are realistic and hence workable. On the other hand, the nursing homes will find it easier to implement the policies formulated. Eventually, the sharing of data and information benefits all the agencies involved.
The need for patient-centered care
Older adults, like other patients, should be active participants in their health and social care. A majority of the day-to-day care is done by the older adults, their families and friends. However, greater benefits will be derived from enabling older adults to be active participants in their care. In Scotland, there have been initiatives to promote patient-centred care in healthcare organizations including those dealing with older adults (Van der Heide et al., 2018). Patient-centred care is a shift from the traditional approach which is provider-centric towards a health and social care that integrates the preferences, needs and experiences of the clients (Brandenburg et al., 2015). In the case of the older adults, patient-centred care seeks to empower the clients by focusing on patient-provider relations and enabling the providers to partner with their clients to better meet their needs.
The inter-agency collaboration will facilitate research into the most effective ways of enhancing patient-centered care for older adults. When agencies come together, they are in apposition to facilitate rigorous research, which can provide optimal processes for caring for the elderly (Frieden, 2014). Normally, agencies undertake research based on what affects them individually. However, with collaboration, the organization can work together to generat...