Baking an integration cake: Ingredients for fostering PHCOs' capacity for integration

National health reform has identified integrated care as a priority for the Australian health system. Enabling integration involves efforts at the macro (policy), meso (organisation) and micro (practitioner/patient) levels. Evidence suggests that at the meso level effective planning strategies, strong leadership, sufficient resources and shared goals are key ingredients in the recipe for integration. Using evidence from a rapid review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature, this presentation will examine integration as it relates to primary health care organisations. By synthesising sources for this review it was possible to identify challenges to integration at the meso level as relating to factors such as communication, stewardship, financing and resources. The mechanisms for successful integration were also evinced as factors such as engagement, partnerships, infrastructure and eHealth. This presentation will highlight the complexities of integration with emphasis on factors that can be addressed at the meso level to foster organisations’ capacity for integrated health care