Centers for intensive care medicine: “A milestone for intensive care medicine and future quality of care”
25.10.2023 16:17
Last week, the G-BA decided to set up centers for intensive care medicine. “October 19, 2023 will go down in the history of intensive care medicine!”, DIVI Vice President Professor Gernot Marx is convinced. The opportunities that the new intensive care centers will offer represent a milestone in patient care in Germany.
“We can now push ahead with the urgently needed expansion of telemedicine networks and help critically ill patients in smaller hospitals quickly and easily in the future,” says the director of the Clinic for Operative Intensive Care Medicine and Intermediate Care at Aachen University Hospital, visibly pleased.
A press release published by the G-BA already makes it clear what exactly was decided: “Centres for intensive care medicine are hospitals that, in the future, will be able to perform special tasks as intensive care competence and coordination centers in addition to patient care and receive financial surcharges for this,” it says Report. “An important task of such centers can be case conferences with other hospitals via video transmission, which can shorten the length of stay of patients requiring intensive care in hospital or reduce life-threatening complications. So far, the intensive care component in other centers generally only covers the expertise of the respective specialist area and therefore unfortunately remains limited. The new type of center for intensive care medicine, on the other hand, is more broadly positioned thanks to an interprofessional care approach. The G-BA defines what special requirements are necessary for personnel, equipment or quality assurance in such centers.” The new center regulations come into force after publication in the Federal Gazette.
Now interdisciplinary and interprofessional competence for the patient
“The successful treatment of seriously ill patients requiring intensive care requires interdisciplinary and multiprofessional care,” comments Vice President Marx. Accordingly, a specialist society has been campaigning for the expansion of the center rule for years. The care of Covid-19 patients during the pandemic has already demonstrated the benefits of intensive care centers for staff and patients. The path is therefore only logical, says Marx. “We’re starting a whole new chapter!”
From now on, identify intensive care centers at the state level
“The real work is of course only beginning now,” emphasizes Professor Uwe Janssens, Secretary General of DIVI and Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine and Internal Intensive Care Medicine at St. Antonius Hospital Eschweiler. It is now important to identify the intensive care centers at the state level. “Implementation will now be difficult. But DIVI is happy to advise and support you in this process,” says Janssens.
Marx adds: “The centers for intensive care medicine must meet the quality requirements of the G-BA and be able to take on tasks such as supra-regional care and networking.” Telemedicine is a special task here.
Center formation is also important for the care of the smallest patients
The G-BA decision last week also results in another work order, explains Professor Florian Hoffmann, designated DIVI President. The senior physician at Dr. von Haunerschen Children's Hospital sees the creation of centers in pediatrics and pediatric intensive care medicine as one of the most important tasks of the future. The current supply bottlenecks are enormous. For example, children in many regions of Germany could no longer be cared for in times of virus waves and would have to rely on supra-regional networks.
“Accordingly, the G-BA decision is not just a great day for intensive care medicine with regard to adult patients. No, it is also a guide for pediatric medicine,” emphasizes Hoffmann. Accordingly, he hopes that similar opportunities will open up for the pediatric teams and smallest patients in the system in the foreseeable future.