Environmental scan of interprofessional collaborative practice initiatives

Interprofessional collaboration in health care is high on the policy agenda in Canada. There is evidence that governments, academic institutions, regulatory bodies and health services are developing directions, policies and strategies with collaboration in mind. The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) received governmental funding to implement The Ottawa Hospital Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care.Prior to implementing our model, we conducted an environmental scan to identify initiatives related to interprofessional collaboration in clinical settings. A historical method was used to understand the chronological development of interprofessional collaboration within the health field over the last 10 years. Critical browsing was used to search, select and summarize information found on the web. Fifty two documents were critically reviewed; 27 documents were retained for further analysis and inclusion.The information was analyzed according to three main parameters: source, summary and relevance to our project. The five broad themes identified are: promotion, networking, evidence, resources and linkage between interprofessional education and care. This seems an accurate reflection of the current state of this area; there is active promotion and networking, concrete frameworks and funds but few published results regarding the efficacy of implementing IPC in health care organizations. As experience with the approach accumulates, evidence should grow