Efficiency is said to be one of the main characteristics of sustainable health systems. In this article posted in Nuffield Trust’s Blog some of the key points that drive health systems towards efficiency are described: 1) integrated pharmacy, community and primary care; 2) hospitals as health systems; 3) standardize, simplify through IT, then shift the skill mix; 4) political courage, take social care seriously; 5) a dominant payer deliver a better health, care and value.

In this article, integrated care is mentioned not only as a health care issue, but also as a way of giving social care the importance it has. Israel health system is mentioned as an example of how integrated services could be a way to achieve efficiency in health care services.