Zeitschrift für ärztliche Fortbildung und Qualitätssicherung
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
[Interdisciplinarity and chronic pain therapy--implementation of a new Interdisciplinary Center at the University Hospital Dresden on the basis of an integrated health care contract].
Due to the bio-psycho-social complexity and presence of various health departments, chronic pain requires interdisciplinary cooperation which enables the accurate evaluation of the clinical findings and is a prerequisite for an individual and resource-oriented therapeutic concept focusing on both physical and mental activation. This concept forms the basis of medical care at the University Pain Center, which was founded in April 2004 at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital in Dresden. ⋯ Following a draft version of a coherent multimodal, interdisciplinary healthcare concept along with full cost accounting after 1 1/2 years, an integrative healthcare contract got signed by two health insurances (AOK-Sachsen and VdAK) in June 2004. After two years of existence, the first experiences, results and especially the Pain Center's treatment spectrum ought to be demonstrated.
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
[Limitations to the physician's discretionary and therapeutic freedom and to the provision of health care for the general population by a shortage of financial and human resources--the rules of Section 2 Para. 1 and 4 of the Medical Professional Code of conduct and how much they are really worth].
Up to the early 1990's the health care system was essentially characterised through:--the insured' right of choice of therapist,--therapeutic freedom of patients and physicians, and--the freedom of establishment for medical doctors.--In accordance with the Hospital Funding Act the hospital system was--in compliance with federal constitutional law using capacity requirements--based on the "fire-fighting" principle, i.e. that if required, every patient should have access to a suitable hospital bed within about 15 minutes.--The responsibility for ensuring the provision of general and specialist health care services had been conferred by the government to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (1955) in the legal form of a public corporation. In the face of a foreseeable rise in expenses as a result of advances in medicine and a higher demand for health care services because of the demographic development (long-life society) the Advisory Council for Concerted Action in Health Care concludes in its Annual Report that maintaining this level of health care for all people is not financially viable any longer. This is why the state--on the basis of the Health Care Reform Act of 2002 and the Statutory Health Insurance System Modernisation Act of 2004--retreated from the provision of services in the ambulatory and inpatient setting by privatising these sectors and by proclaiming competition (introduction of diagnosis-related groups). ⋯ With regard to the assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures the Joint Federal Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) in the summer of 2005 gave itself a Code of Procedures that defines uniform cross-sector criteria for the appraisal of diagnosis and treatment. In Germany the principle of evidence-based health care has by law--and this is unique as compared to other countries--fully penetrated everyday health care where the decisions of the Joint Federal Committee in the form of directives have mandatory effect for health care providers and hence for the insured, too. This is why the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians have embarked on the implementation of the "National Programme for Disease Management Guidelines" and the "Health Services Research" Project as a means of continuously evaluating health care provision which are intended to guide the future political control of the system of statutory health insurance in terms of target-performance comparisons and for the purpose of identifying health care deficits.
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Jan 2007
[Evidence-based medicine: some misunderstandings put right].
Evidence-based Medicine (EbM) has been identified with the "Five Steps" of asking an answerable question, tracking down the evidence, appraising original articles, integrating the result into one's practice and evaluating the effect. However, the constraints of most health care settings allow the full cycle of this approach to a very limited number of problems only. Most problems have to be solved at the intuitive end of the cognitive spectrum. ⋯ Doctors achieve this in a variety of ways; Sackett's Five Steps is only one of them. We conclude that EbM has had a tremendous impact on practitioners in this country. Future training efforts have to be adapted to the cognitive structure of doctors' reasoning.
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The value of consensus recommendations for improving clinical practice may be restricted by the limitations of the evidence on which they are based. When few high quality studies are identified for evaluation from the specific field of interest, selected 'transferable' evidence from comparable clinical situations may add important information. ⋯ In particular, systems for grading of recommendations must take into account the different types of evidence used, so as not to give equivalent weight to transferable and specific evidence without justification. In this article, we discuss the use of transferable evidence by the PROSPECT Working Group, which has developed a clinical decision support programme (www.postoppain.org) to provide evidence and recommendations for procedure-specific postoperative pain management.
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Quality indicators are used world-wide to control the quality of health care. To be effective these indicators have to meet quality criteria themselves. But until now there has been no fully operational method for assessing indicators. ⋯ Particular characteristics of QUALIFY include clear definitions of all criteria, consistent information as the basis of assessment and a standardized approach throughout the assessment process. QUALIFY comprises 20 criteria which are assigned to the three categories relevance, scientific soundness and feasibility. It was tested during the assessment of 55 indicators and served as the methodological basis for selecting those quality indicators that German hospitals are required to report publicly.