[Electronic networking and the central electronic medical record as structural organizational elements of regional interdisciplinary health care in healthy Kinzigtal]

[Communication Pathways and Difficulties with Nursing Homes and Digital Perspectives: A Survey of German General Practitioners]

AIM OF THE STUDY

To outline basic information on communication structures and obstacles between GPs and nursing homes as well as GPs' perspectives on usage of E-health technology.

METHODS

A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study carried out among n=600 randomly selected GPs in Germany sent by mail.

RESULTS

The response rate was 20% (n=114). The respondent's mean age was 53 years (min=35; max=77), two-thirds were women (65%). GPs mainly used fax (92%) and telephone (87%) to communicate with nursing homes. Less than 10% routinely used digital technologies like E-mail (7%), E-health software (6%) or chat-services (1%). About half of GPs reported unnecessary (52%) or unspecific (51%) nursing home visit requests as well as unreported medication plan changes by other physicians (51%) as a common but avoidable problem. Many GPs wanted to use E-medication plans (85%), E-follow-up prescriptions (79%) and E-letters of referral (69%) in the future. 33% of GPs were already using fully digitalized patient files. Only 9% worked exclusively paper-based.

CONCLUSION

Though GPs are open to digitalized communication with nursing homes, fax and telephone are still mostly used. GPs prefer to execute less complex tasks digitally, such as change of medication plans and letters of referral. Fewer can imagine digital solutions for complex procedures such as acute health problems and ward rounds. Only 8% do not want to work digitally at all.

Terminology for interprofessional collaboration: definition and current practice

OBJECTIVES

Interprofessional collaboration leads to an improvement in health care. This call for increased interprofessional collaboration has led to national and international recommendations for interprofessional learning and education. The GMA has taken up this challenge and has implemented a working group on "interprofessional education in the health professions" to address this topic. The terminology used to describe collaboration among the health professions seems to vary and does not reflect any clear consensus. The aim of this paper is to identify the different terms used to describe collaboration between health professions and to analyse their use in German journals.

METHODS

The terms frequently used to describe collaboration between health professionals were identified and defined. German medical journals were then pragmatically analyzed regarding the use of the terms interprof* and interdiszip*.

RESULTS

The German terms for interprofessional and interdisciplinary were not used consistently in the journals reviewed.

CONCLUSION

There seems to be no agreement on the use of terms to describe the collaboration between health professions. Consistent terminology should be used as a basis for promoting collaboration and improving understanding among the parties involved.