Developing a neighborhood primary care strategy.

For building and maintaining a primary care workforce to staff an integrated care delivery strategy, considerations include: > Geographic presence > Patient care modeling > Professional staffing.

Integration: from structural to functional.

Because of trends that are driving increased consolidation in the healthcare industry, community healthcare systems in the future will have fewer independent medical practices. Hospitals and physician practices can be structurally or functionally integrated, but those that are structurally integrated only, do not function as integrated health systems. For successful integration, leaders from many disciplines need to engage in a partnership and be willing to create conditions for a functional integration.