New Voices, New Power, New Ways of Working: Bringing integrated care to the National Health Service in England.

This issue of Healthcare Quarterly features the third and final instalment in a three-part series developed by Ontario's The Change Foundation featuring international perspectives on health service delivery models that improve system integration and ensure seamless services and better coordination. Part one featured Chris Ham, chief executive of the London-based King's Fund think tank, and part two featured Geoff Huggins, director for health and social care integration in Scotland. In this issue, Helen Bevan, chief transformation officer of England's National Health Service, discusses the radical shifts she'd like to see in how we approach integration.

Integrating Care in Scotland.

This issue of Healthcare Quarterly includes the second of a three-part series developed by Ontario's The Change Foundation featuring international perspectives on health service delivery models that improve system integration and ensure seamless services and better coordination. Part 1 featured Chris Ham, chief executive of the London-based King's Fund think tank. In this issue, Geoff Huggins, director for Health and Social Care Integration in Scotland, discusses Scotland's experience and lessons learned after legislating integrated health and social care in 2015.

Effective Approaches to Integrating Care: A Three-Part Series.

This issue of Healthcare Quarterly introduces a three-part series featuring international perspectives on health service delivery models that improve system integration and ensure seamless services and better coordination. The series, developed by Ontario's Change Foundation, will feature Chris Ham, chief executive of the London-based King's Fund think tank; Geoff Huggins, director for health and social care integration in Scotland; and Helen Bevan, chief transformation officer of England's National Health Service.

Are LHINs influencing the patient experience in Ontario?

Patient engagement and patient experience have become an important focal point for health policy development in Ontario. Many healthcare delivery and planning organizations are exploring how to use patient experience information and data to improve the quality of their services and processes. Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) are also beginning to include patient experience as a measure of local health system improvement. This article reviews the role of LHINs in developing patient experience information over their 10 year history and highlights current initiatives.

The transformation experience of the Veterans Health Administration and its relevance to Canada.

Over the past few years, there has been a steady stream of visitors to Canada from the US Veterans Health Administration (VA). Led by the former Under Secretary for Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Ken Kizer, they come to tell the remarkable story of how the VA transformed itself from a hospital-based bureaucracy described as "dangerous, dirty and scandal-ridden" to a healthcare system for veterans recognized for its high-quality, patient-centred care. It is a fascinating story of how a publicly funded healthcare service changed its entire approach to patient care with a quality improvement lens at its core. Fifteen years ago, critics of the VA called for its complete privatization as the only solution to fixing its problems. A team of quality champions set out to prove otherwise. Canada has some lessons to learn. The VA is a compelling role model for Canadian reformers, in large measure, due to its public sector character.

The Patient Experience in Ontario 2020: What Is Possible?

Words are important. They signal an intention behind a thought. So when Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care publishes an action plan (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 2012) that declares itself to be "obsessively patient-centred," curiosity ensues and terms abound. Patient-centred care, patient engagement and patient experience - all seem to be in the mix in Ontario. This paper will propose a set of definitions for these commonly used terms, examine the progress being made in Ontario towards a more patient-centred healthcare system and suggest where we might aim to be by 2020.

Patient Engagement: We Need to Get on With It.

We are extremely grateful to each of the commentators for their thoughtful responses to "The Patient Experience in Ontario 2020: What is Possible?" It was helpful to hear the perspective and insights of authors from different jurisdictions and to benefit from their knowledge and experience. There are a number of themes that emerged from the commentaries that we would like to highlight.