Abstracts by key term: Course of treatment
It can be assumed that due to demographic developments, increasing mobility in old age and the increasing number of obese people, osteoarthritis and thus also the implantation of knee endoprostheses will continue to increase in the coming years (Großschädl/Stronegger 2013; Weinstein et al. 2013; Koenig and Kirschner 2003). Knee arthroplasty is a highly standardized procedure that is well suited to be processed using a treatment pathway. Through the implementation of clinical treatment paths, an improvement in the process could be achieved, which is partly responsible for the fact that the revision rate and length of stay for knee prosthesis implantations has been continuously reduced (Loftus et al. 2014; König/Kirschner 2003; Lüring et al. 2010). The main benefit of presenting the course of treatment for knee endoprostheses and using this as a guide in practice is that this ensures structured patient care (Lüring et al. 2010). The analysis of specific routine data using an adapted treatment path makes it possible to identify potential in the course of treatment and opens up possibilities for improvement in terms of better therapy results [Graf/Hofmann 2003; Wirth 2003]. The most important data source for health services research in Austria is routine data from social health insurance providers. If the data is well prepared, it is possible to analyze it to create transparency with regard to trends and costs in health services research as well as basic knowledge for health care planning (Pfaff et al. 2011; Howell et al. 2009).