Integrated care: a Danish perspective

The Danish health system, in common with most Western health systems, is grappling with the dual challenges of strengthening public health initiatives to prevent disease and providing care to a growing number of patients with chronic disease and comorbidity. A recent review of the system suggests that it generally provides high quality services and patient satisfaction with primary care and hospital services is high. Nevertheless, despite a raft of policies aimed at integrating health services, the Danish system still suffers from a lack of coordination of care. Although Denmark’s health information systems are widely admired, barriers to integration include organisational fragmentation, perverse financial incentives, and the absence of a single electronic medical record.