An implementation rubric can be used by health authorities and organizations to strengthen consistency in the operationalization of integrated care for older persons living with complex health and social care requirements and their care partners. The rubric is a knowledge translation tool designed to facilitate moving evidence into practice. The rubric describes varying levels in the operationalization of integrated care specific to this population. As organizations will differ in terms of readiness, resources and opportunities for implementing integrated care, this formative self-assessment tool can help to determine current levels of integration, and identify target goals and priority areas for program development.
The rubric was developed based on the following process: (1) identifying key concepts in contemporary frameworks of integrated care relevant to older persons and care partners living with complex health conditions; (2) identifying exemplars of the operationalization of key concepts in practice; (3) grouping and labelling operational criteria for each design element; (4) applying criteria across weighted categories (informed by evaluation results associated with best evidence models).