Integrated Care Implemented in the Children's Hospital From the Interwar Period as the Source of Good Practices for the Contemporary Concept of Coordinated Care Based on the WHO Model.

Abstract

Intro: The article tests the hypothesis that we can draw practical knowledge from the experience of service providers operating in the past. The research questions were formulated: can the historical example of the organization of medical care in the Polish Children's Hospital named after Karol and Maria be used as a viable example today? Is it relevant for contemporary practitioners? And do we still use the knowledge of predecessors? The authors decided to use the interwar Hospital and an operating paediatric ward of the Child-Friendly Hospital for a comparative analysis.

Methods: The model of the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization for integrated delivery of health services was adopted as the analysis framework. We based the analysis on descriptive methods, starting with a literature review of routine activities of the Karol and Maria Hospital (historical example) and a paediatric hospital in Poland (contemporary example), then we conducted a comparative transversal study concerning the extent to which integrated care occurs in the WHO model. Finally, the elements of the process evaluation were used in the work.

Results: The research model used enabled us to provide answers to the research questions formulated. The comparative study of a historical hospital and a contemporary one has shown that some problems and ways of solving them constantly reappear in the discussion on the management of evidence-based medical care. Sourcing good practices from the past can be a good research method for current practitioners.

Conclusion: It seems that while the technical aspects of integrated care initiated in the past are developing perfectly, the approach to the evidence-based medicine is waiting to be developed again.