Defining Rural Services Integration

Services integration describes efforts to streamline fragmented systems to enhance the delivery of care and services. A range of healthcare services, such as primary care, dental health, or behavioral health, can be integrated. Healthcare services can also be integrated with human services to meet a broad range of needs.

Services integration programs share the following common characteristics

• Client-centered, and often organized around a specific population (for example, families with low incomes, or an entire community).
• Seek to eliminate siloes, complexity, and redundancy in systems.
• Promote efficacy, as measured through improved outcomes, and efficiency, as measured through reduced costs.

Other definitions of services integration highlight the:

• Extent of the integration: Integration may occur on a spectrum, from loosely integrated (communication, cooperation) to moderately integrated (coordination, collaboration) to highly integrated (convergence, consolidation).
• Scope of services and partners: Programs may include public, private, nonprofit, community-based, faith-based, and for-profit organizations providing services.
• Service delivery models: Healthcare and human services can be delivered in different ways, such as by co-locating services or providing services using technology.

While services integration is about bringing together different components and services, it does not mean that all services are integrated into one package or program.