Abstracts by keywords: managed care
The medical care for patients in Germany is undisputedly one of the best in the world, and this particularly applies to the care in hospitals. However, since the introduction of the flat-rate payment system, a steady increase in the number of cases has been observed, which has now led to a critical intensification of work in hospitals. The precarious current situation is exacerbated by a reduction in personnel, partly caused by a shortage of skilled workers, partly for cost reasons, particularly in nursing, as well as by other circumstances that originated long before the introduction of the DRG system. These consist, on the one hand, in the state-side deficit in financing investment costs, which has been increasing for decades, as well as in the historically grown structural deficits in the hospital landscape - which not only means the high hospital density in Germany compared to international standards, but also, in particular, the relevant regional differences when compared within Germany (1).
31.03.2015
When it comes to health matters, patients are anything but used to taking responsibility for themselves and their health. SGB V already emphasizes that they have shared responsibility and a duty to cooperate. However, it assigns the main responsibility to statutory health insurance. In the past, the traditional way of thinking in medicine often led to patients being seen as objects of medicine without their own responsibility (Schmid et al., page 14). In this context, the focus of care on acute, episodic and one-dimensional diseases is specifically mentioned, not least due to ever-increasing specializations (Müller-Mundt and Schaeffer, page 143).
05.10.2012
In the course of the Europeanization of the healthcare system, interest in healthcare system comparisons has also increased noticeably. Looking beyond one's own health policy inevitably enables the strategic further development of best-practice approaches in the health sector. The instruments of the open method of coordination (OMK) adopted by the EU are proving to be a creative driving force in the development of a Europe-wide comparison of health systems. Health policy reform processes triggered by this should also undergo a regular controlling process at the health care level, which requires the targeted methodical use of health care research. As a result, a European model of health services research could be on the health policy agenda in the foreseeable future.