Original article
As early as 2009, the University of Hamburg and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) decided, as part of a joint effort, to create professorships in the field of health economics/health services research at several faculties, which led to the founding of the Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE) in 2011. This year, the center, founded by Prof. Dr. Mathias Kifmann (Department of Socioeconomics), Prof. Dr. Tom Stargardt (Faculty of Business Administration), Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmut König and Prof. Dr. Matthias Augustin (all from the University of Hamburg or the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf – UKE), and Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg – who serves as its scientific director – will celebrate its tenth anniversary.
07.08.2021
During the Covid-19 pandemic, patients have had fewer cancer screening tests. There were also problems in the healthcare system itself due to a lack of resources and other priorities. With a literature review and expert interviews, the authors show how health systems are responding.
07.08.2021
Since it was first described in China in December 2019, Covid-19 has spread worldwide and subsequently triggered a severe pandemic (1). To prevent healthcare systems from being overwhelmed and to slow the spread of the disease, governments around the world have implemented a range of non-pharmaceutical measures of varying intensity (2). In Germany, these measures included closing schools and public playgrounds, and recommending companies to enable and facilitate remote work (3). Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses show the increased prevalence of mental health problems related to the Covid-19 pandemic in adults (4, 5). However, it is not just adults who have been affected by the pandemic measures. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has also impacted the daily lives of children and young people, including the closure of schools and a lack of outdoor activities. A number of Asian and European studies have shown that a significant proportion of children and adolescents suffer from mental health problems as a result of the coronavirus pandemic or related measures (6-11).
07.08.2021
The corona pandemic poses major challenges for the healthcare system. There was great concern about overload, particularly with regard to intensive care capacities. The discussion about the right prevention, therapy and care concepts remains intense [1]. In addition to symptomatic measures, the treatment concept for Covid-19 includes oxygen administration, non-invasive and invasive ventilation, thromboembolism prophylaxis and the administration of dexamethasone in severe cases [2]. The evaluation of routine data during the course of the pandemic can meaningfully supplement surveillance via legal procedures and the development of registers in a timely manner and without additional collection effort. The Quality Indicators for Church Hospitals Association (QKK e. V.) has therefore quickly added the topic of Covid-19 to its cross-agency quality benchmarking. The Covid-19 module includes 27 key figures in the QKK indicator set for 2021, including intensive care, complications, ventilation and mortality (see https://www.qkk-online.de/). The QKK e. V. can use the routine data from its member institutions to make a comparison between the first and second waves of the corona pandemic in order to support the further development of treatment concepts for patients with Covid-19.
07.08.2021
The renowned infectious disease specialist and healthcare researcher Prof. Dr. Matthias Schrappe and his team of authors were the first to express a strong suspicion in their ad-hoc statement 3.0, "On the Role of Intensive Care in the SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 Epidemic" (1), writing on May 17 of this year: "In any case, the decline in available beds appears to be more a consequence of the decrease in overall capacity than a result of increased utilization by Covid-19 patients." This statement not only met with considerable opposition but also with some serious personal attacks. These subsided, however, when the Federal Court of Auditors took up the figures he had published in "Monitor Healthcare Research" and, on June 9, in its "Report pursuant to Section 88 Paragraph 2 of the Federal Budget Code on the Audit of Selected Corona-Related Expenditure Items of Budget Chapter 15 and the Health Fund," even criticized the fact "that the current system of compensation payments enables undesirable windfall gains." Recently, SPD health expert Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach commented on this in the „Bild“ format „Hard but wise“ (2), expressing even more far-reaching suspicions.
07.08.2021
Employees in the nursing professions have been exposed to frequent psychological and emotional stress as well as severe physical demands since the Covid-19 pandemic (Schmucker 2020). Current publications have already addressed additional effects on the experience of stress. In an online survey by Hower et al. (2020), the managers of nursing facilities and services surveyed cited concerns about Covid-19 infections among those in need of care and employees as the greatest burden. A survey of health professionals shows similar results; 73% of respondents (n = 1,150) are concerned about the health of patients or residents, and even more (83%, n = 1,156) are concerned about the health of relatives and friends. More than half (54%, n = 624) feel stressed in their everyday work due to the pandemic (Wildgruber et al. 2020).
07.08.2021
On January 28, 2020, the Scientific Commission for a Modern Remuneration System (KOMV) handed over its “recommendations for a modern remuneration system” to the Federal Minister of Health (KOMV 2019).1 The coalition agreement for the 19th legislative period instructed it to “by the end of 2019 "Taking into account all related medical, legal and economic questions" to develop proposals for "a modern compensation system" that "represents the care needs of the population and the status of medical progress" (Coalition Agreement 2018, 4589-4594). The passage in the coalition agreement setting up the Scientific Commission was rounded off with a remarkable outlook: “Whether these suggestions will be implemented will be decided afterwards” (Coalition Agreement 2018, 4593f.). This cute, because somehow self-evident statement was an expression of the coalition's disunity: While Karl Lauterbach, the SPD's chief negotiator for the health policy part of the coalition agreement, saw the merger of the two remuneration systems for medical services as a building block of a unified health insurance system, the CDU was likely to do so /CSU have connected the declaration of intent "for the drawer" with this sentence (Jacobs 2020, 14).
07.08.2021
The 20th German Congress for Health Services Research (October 6-8, 2021) will take place under the motto "Understanding the Healthcare Context – Promoting Knowledge Transfer." The congress, whose central thesis is that healthcare design and transfer cannot succeed without a deep understanding of the complex healthcare context, will introduce the topic in a high-profile international session. Among the participants will be Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Braithwaite (Director of the Center for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Macquarie University, Australia) and Prof. Dr. Russell Mannion (Chair and Research Director, Health Services Management Center, University of Birmingham, UK), who will present their respective perspectives in an interview with "Monitor Health Services Research.".
07.06.2021
Comment from Prof. Dr. Reinhold Roski (editor of “Monitor Health Care Research”) and Peter Stegmaier (editor-in-chief of “Monitor Health Care Research”)
07.06.2021
Comment from Prof. Dr. Franz Porzsolt (Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Economics (ICE) eV) with the collaboration of Philipp Legrum (member and computer scientist of the Institute of Clinical Economics (ICE) eV)