Defragmenting health care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

[Extract] When your computer starts to slow down or reaches capacity,
you should consider running the ‘defrag’ program.
Defragmentation reverses fragmentation that occurs when
parts of a file are not stored as a unit in the same place on the
computer’s hard drive, but instead are spread across several
areas. Health care fragmentation refers to delivery of care
revolving around health care provider locations and medical
specialties rather than using a patient-centred approach. Lack
of coordination and communication between multiple
decision makers are common problems seen in this setting
and can adversely affect patient safety, delay diagnoses and
treatments and increase cost.1
There are encouraging signs
that the ‘defrag’ button has been hit for the Australian health
care system. Models of integrated care, which connect
services across different providers and focus on patient needs,
are being piloted and implemented in all jurisdictions. Sharing
of patient information—an essential component of integrated
care—is increasingly facilitated by shared and linked
electronic health records