The degree to which the care of a patient from the onset of illness until its completion is continuous, that is, without interruption. Interruptions occur sometimes because the patient does not follow through, sometimes because the system has gaps, often because of lack of facilities or because of financial impediments (absence of benefits, for example, which cover certain services). The term “continuity of care” is sometimes used to refer to a longer span of time than the single episode of illness, and to the patient’s health care when he is both well and ill.
A term describing a system of medical care in which individuals requiring advice on their health consult a named primary care physician (general practitioner (GP)) or partnership of practitioners. The availability of an individual’s medical records, and the doctor’s knowledge of his or her medical, family and social history, should facilitate prompt, appropriate decisions about investigations, treatment or referral to specialists. What the doctor(s) know(s) about the patient can, for example, save time, alert hospitals to allergies, avoid the duplication of investigations and provide hospitals with practical domestic information when a patient is ready for discharge. The traditional 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year care by a personal physician is now a rarity: continuity of care has evolved and is now commonly based on a multi-disciplinary health team working from common premises. Changing social structures, population mobility and the complexity and cost of health care have driven this evolution. Some experts have argued that the changes are so great as to make continuity of care an unrealistic concept in the 21st century. Nevertheless, support inside and outside conventional medical practice for holistic medicine — a related concept for treating the whole person, body and mind — and the fact that many people still appreciate the facility to see their own doctors suggest that continuity of care is still a valid objective that is of value to the community.