The MAIA method (Method of action for the integration of healthcare and support services in the field of Autonomy)

At the institutional level, there is a top-down approach to co-creation, designed to better fit the realities of the territories: the Regional Health Agency selects, via a call for application, an infra-departmental institution (non-profit organisation) which can mobilise local actors. This non-profit will be in charge of implementing the MAIA pilot on its territory, by connecting the professionals in healthcare to fit the territorial reality. At the user level, the co-creation materialises through the dialogue between the senior (the user) and the case manager, who becomes the spokesperson for the user and translates the user’s needs and wishes to the healthcare professionals (sometimes against the advices of the health professionals).

In its interactions with the users and professionals, the care manager helps to improve the organisation of the care system by identifying any dysfunctions observed on the territory.

According to Policy maker, MAIA activity reports are done by the MAIAs but require a thorough understanding. Starting to introduce indicators for measuring value creation raises problems relating to the instrumentalisation of such indicators. Ideally, a territorial roadmap used by all the operational actors would be interesting to develop, but given the fact that data would be analysed on a very small territorial scale and then structured at a regional and national level, it requires money and tools. This is not done today. Monitoring indicators have been developed and used during the implementation stage of the MAIA method (e.g. number of contacts a senior must have established to access to the right resource). Currently at the local level, the impact in terms of organisation is measured (participation rate of partners at the tactical table, or for the case management, the territory distribution of seniors being managed). It has been noted that the participants to the tactical tables are always the same volunteers, actors who encounter difficulties in their daily practice do not often wish to participate (as this could be viewed as failure) and general practitioners are rarely part of the table. According to the pilot at the local level, a tool has been evaluated, but there is no local evaluation of the value creation of the MAIA for the territory. It would be interesting to know for example the impact of MAIA on the reduction of hospitalisation in emergencies, the reduction of user orientation towards wrong services. The partners should be involved to create these indicators. For the case management, the value creation is evaluate via the decreasing needs of the senior that the case manager has to fulfill. The creation of value can be measured via satisfaction surveys but this is not a global value creation, that is, the medico-social system as a whole. Care Pathways Operational Committees are currently working on impact indicators (non-use of emergency, scheduled hospitalisation). The current problem is that the databases are currently partitioned between the medico-social, social and sanitary field, so there are difficulties to measure the impacts on a pathway of a user. Finally, MAIA is on a voluntary basis, so there is no incentive (legal, financial), for professionals who are solicitated to take part in brainstorming sessions and one can find always the same people involved.

This initiative is applicable to the various sub-territories of the French regions, because of its very locally-oriented – and even user-oriented approach. The concept is therefore replicable to other territories. Also, the MAIA project was already copied from a similar initiative in Quebec, Canada.

An integrated, one-stop service provides, at any place of the territory, a harmonised answer adapted to the needs of the users, by directing them towards the adequate resource. It integrates all the reception and orientation counters of the territory. The MAIA method includes the development of common information-sharing tools and action-steering tools (a shared multi-dimensional analysis form, a standardised multidimensional needs assessment tool, and individualised service plan). If the MAIA method is originally top-down, once the project holder chosen by the network, the deployment is left to the initiative of the Maia pilot. Thus, this method is deployed on territories in very different even innovative ways, depending on the diversity of actors and networks already existing on the territory. Thus, the approach is considered as “help-it happen” by the policymakers. Various forms of MAIA multi-stakeholder networks have emerged at a territorial level.

All respondents have stressed that it is difficult to determine the moment of value creation. National and regional public manager, partners, pilots agree on the fact that the creation of value of the MAIA method is mostly upstream, as a back-office function, during the constitution of the network, when the pilot and the partners discuss together to facilitate the articulation between services (creation of a professional dynamic). The users here are the partners. Thus, the value creation takes place before the services are delivered. However, the respondents point at that the value creation is also continuous, throughout the accompaniment of seniors all over the care process (according to the national and regional public manager and partners). When a single patient joins the healthcare system, this is value creation. According to the case manager, the value is created once the professional chain around the senior is stable and complete. Thus, mostly once the service is delivered, even if the senior monitoring continues to be provided.