Strengthening intersectoral care
Patient portals connect inpatient and outpatient partners
Not only in Denmark and Sweden is it already a reality:
An intersectoral healthcare system that puts the patient and their needs at the forefront. In Germany, the sector boundaries are finally beginning to dissolve. Digitalization plays a significant role in this.
15 percent of hospital services were lost during the pandemic – some never to return. “At least half of that is expected not to come back, but to be provided on an outpatient basis permanently,” estimates Prof. Christian Wallwiener, Managing Director of the consulting firm WMC Healthcare. That would correspond to about 1.5 million cases. “The situation is dramatic and makes intersectoral care a survival factor for hospitals.”
The trend towards outpatient care, which has been felt in the German healthcare system for several years, is now gaining momentum.
Hybrid-DRGs could also ensure in the future that providing outpatient services becomes more attractive for hospitals. “For hospitals, the melting of sector boundaries means a massive adjustment,” explains Wallwiener. Processes need to be rethought; outpatient surgery structures need to be created. “Time is a particularly important factor. Office-based doctors are used to investing only a few minutes per patient. For hospital doctors, this is unfamiliar and requires, for example, symptom-based rather than holistic treatment.”
For patients, however, this is a gain.
“Intersectorality improves patient management and treatment quality,” says Dr. Christian Bayer, an expert in Digital Transformation at WMC. For a long time, this failed because outpatient and inpatient providers operated in separate worlds. “Thanks to new digital possibilities, referrers, hospitals, and aftercare facilities are finally better connected.” Patient portals and transition platforms accompany patients throughout their entire journey: from initial diagnosis, through a hospital stay, to rehab or outpatient aftercare. Referrers have access to all relevant information about their patients – before, during, and after the stay. Conversely, the hospital can optimally prepare in advance. Special medications can be procured in time or, for example, an accompanying person for a child can be planned. “This increases patient safety and satisfaction among patients and staff, but also shortens the length of stay and reduces costs,” explains Bayer.
There is still one hurdle: Different providers rely on various patient portals – which makes access especially complicated for referrers. “An ideal solution would be a central interface,” says Bayer. The providers of patient portals – often digital start-ups or established companies from other industries – are ahead of the manufacturers of hospital information systems (HIS). Media disruptions must be avoided, and the transfer of structured data must be facilitated. However, much is still available in hospitals only as PDFs or in paper form. “The possibilities are fascinating, but there is still a lot of work ahead for all partners before we can fully exploit them,” Bayer emphasizes. “Hospitals and the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians need to be made aware that only by working together can a better outcome for the patient be achieved. Only when, for example, hospitals take the interests of office-based doctors into account when procuring and developing patient portals can the process become ‘seamless.'”