Maturity Assessment Process - Basque Country

The organisations responsible for the self-assessment process are:

• Osakidetza-Basque Public Health Service
• Kronikgune Institute for Health Service Research.

The region

The Basque Country, is an autonomous region in Northern Spain. The challenges for the healthcare authorities providing services to this population of 2.17 million citizens, include: ageing, long term illness and dependency. The region has developed a strategic vision to provide explicit support, leadership and capacities to transform the health and social care system towards integrated care. Integrated care in the Basque Country is mainly based on three pillars:

• Integrated governance
• Population approach
• Culture and values

Maturity Assessment for Integrated Care

The maturity assessment process was fully conducted in Spanish and comprised two stages:

• individual self assessment, completed by each appointed stakeholder with one-to-one support upon request; and

• a consensus workshop, delivered with all the stakeholders face-to-face.

Strengths identified through the Maturity Assessment process

• Structure and governance; Digital Infrastructure; and Population Approach. The healthcare structures have been unified and the governance aligned with the objective of integrated care and digital and information systems have been created and standardised.
• A Unified Healthcare Record accessible for all the healthcare professionals and the nursing homes has been created, and a risk stratification strategy has been carried out and improved stratifying the entire population of the Basque Country.
  

Weaknesses identified through the Maturity Assessment process

• Process Coordination; Removal of inhibitors; and Citizen Empowerment were the dimensions where the Basque stakeholders found more room for improvement.
  

As a region, the Basque health system has advanced significantly towards integrated healthcare services over the past 10 years. There is clear strategy can structural commitment to integration. Made up of 13 Integrated Healthcare Organisations (IHOs), which were established to integrate primary and hospitalised care into one single organisation to create synergies between the different levels of care.

The team from Osakidetza took part in one of our knowledge exchange webinars. They shared further insights about the process. To view the webinar, follow this link.

The spider diagram illustrates the outcomes of the final consensus on the maturity for integrated care in the Basque Country. The outcomes reflect the actual maturity of the Basque health system, showing progress towards integrated care in all dimensions.

The final report which will provide much more detailed information about the region and the process is available to download in the Maturity Assessment Reports section in Resources.