Integrierte Versorgung: Wo stehen wir? Eine Public Health orientierte Bestandsaufnahme

The beginning of integrated care (IC) in 2000 was combined with hope for the development of health care innovations. Twelve years later it is time to check whether the model has proved itself. The author, who has a public health background and was involved in the introduction of IC in 2000 - considers IC as a chance for a competition for the best health outcomes by considering efficiency criteria and a maximum in patient's orientation. In the following article he presents an overview of the development of integrated care and presents a public health oriented scheme for the assessment of the different types of IC. He comes to the result that though many interesting health care innovations have been developed, however the potential of IC for a reformation of the German health care system was up to now only used for a fraction.