Organizational Capabilities for Integrating Care

The success of integrated care interventions is highly dependent on the internal and collective capabilities of the organizations in which they are implemented. Yet, organizational capabilities are rarely described, understood, or measured with sufficient depth and breadth in empirical studies or in practice. Assessing these capabilities can contribute to understanding why some integrated care interventions are more effective than others. We identified, organized, and assessed survey instruments that measure the internal and collective organizational capabilities required for integrated care delivery. We conducted an expert consultation and searched Medline and Google Scholar databases for survey instruments measuring factors outlined in the Context and Capabilities for Integrating Care Framework. A total of 58 instruments were included in the review and assessed based on their psychometric properties, practical considerations, and applicability to integrated care efforts. This study provides a bank of psychometrically sound instruments for describing and comparing organizational capabilities. Greater use of these instruments across integrated care interventions and studies can enhance standardized comparative analyses and inform change management. Further research is needed to build an evidence base for these instruments and to explore the associations between organizational capabilities and integrated care processes and outcomes.