Environmental scan of interprofessional collaborative practice initiatives.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Healthcare Policy
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is a key policy focus in Canadian healthcare.
• Various stakeholders, including government and academic institutions, are developing strategies to promote IPC.
• The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) initiated an Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care with governmental funding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct an environmental scan of interprofessional collaboration initiatives in clinical settings.
• To understand the historical development of IPC in healthcare over the past decade.
• To inform the implementation of TOH's Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care.

Main Methods:

• A historical research method was employed to trace the evolution of IPC.
• Critical browsing of web-based information was used for searching and selecting documents.
• Fifty-two documents were reviewed, with 27 retained for analysis based on source, summary, and relevance.

Main Results:

• Analysis revealed five key themes: promotion, networking, evidence, resources, and the link between interprofessional education and care.
• Active promotion and networking efforts are evident.
• Concrete frameworks and funding exist, but published evidence on the efficacy of IPC implementation in healthcare organizations is scarce.

Conclusions:

• The current state of IPC in healthcare shows significant investment in promotion and infrastructure.
• There is a notable gap in published research demonstrating the effectiveness of IPC models.
• Accumulating experience with IPC approaches is expected to generate more evidence on efficacy in the future.