Better care by a family doctor

Study Proves Health Benefits Through Family-Centered Care

09/10/2014

Patients who have a permanent family doctor appear to receive better medical care. This emerges from a study recently presented in Berlin by the Universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg. Thus, people with a closer patient-doctor bond are less likely in the hospital and would also receive less medication.

9,000 avoided hospital admissions in two years
Is it better for patients with a family doctor than for others who are constantly changing? As a recent study of the Universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg shows, apparently already. According to that, in Baden-Württemberg alone, more than 4,500 hospital admissions per year could be caused by the so-called „Family-Centered Care (HZV)“ be avoided, reports the AOK Baden-Württemberg. The study had been able to confirm a total of 9,000 avoided hospital admissions for the years 2011 and 2012 so far evaluated in the southwestern federal state. „This result is not accidental“, said the Medical Director of the Department of General Medicine and Health Services Research at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Prof. Dr. med. med. Joachim Szecsenyi. Rather, be „it [.] is the consequence of the much more intense relationship between the HZV doctor and the patient.“

Benefits especially for chronically ill and elderly patients
The study also showed that mainly the chronically ill and the elderly would benefit from the HZV in Baden-Württemberg, e.g. Difficult course of disease would not even occur through the close contact. According to Szecsenyis, CBD patients have an average of three family doctor contacts a year more than those insured in the standard care system „superfluous treatments“ decrease with medical specialists and would be prescribed by a third less medication. „The costs of outpatient pharma therapy in the outpatient sector were lower than in the regular care for those insured with the HZV per year and the patient, even without a discount of more than 100 euros“, Szecsenyi continues.

CO should improve patient care and avoid unnecessary costs
As the health insurance continues to report, the Südwest-AOK alone in 2013 a total of over 300 million euros invested in the family doctor agreement, which now for more than 1.25 million policyholders and over 3,800 family doctors in Baden-Württemberg „firmly established and demonstrably accepted“ be. The concept of family-centered care is a specific form of medical care in which a family doctor, as the first point of contact, coordinates all treatment steps, and thus in principle as „pilot“ acts for the patient. In return, the insured person undertakes to go to the general practitioner for health problems for at least one year, and to seek medical specialists only for referral. Due to the closer doctor-patient relationship, the patient should be better cared for, on the other hand, unnecessary and expensive (double) examinations can be avoided. „Here is proof that better patient care and cost-effectiveness - done right - are two sides of the same coin“, the chairman of the board of the AOK Baden-Württemberg, Dr. med. Christopher Hermann. (No)