Components of the orthopedic care program (a) |
Promotion of guideline-recommended care |
Defragmentation of health-care |
Focus on chronic diseases due to rising life expectancy |
Incentives to repeat consultations in critical clinical situations and to ensure pharmacotherapy is evidence-based |
Morbidity-adapted reimbursement |
Patient safety enhanced via multidisciplinary, structured and biopsychosocial-preventive care |
Continuous data-driven quality improvement |
Participation in clinical peer group training sessions, e.g. in drug therapy |
Coordinated care pathways standardize communication between general practitioners and orthopedists |
Provision of patient education and emphasis on nationwide disease management programs |
Components of orthopedic care program provided in addition to usual care (b) |
Participating specialists take part in regular and obligatory advanced training |
Coordinated care pathways standardize cooperation between general practitioners and specialists (orthopedists) |
Appointment within two weeks (in urgent cases appointment on the same day) |
Doctor’s office waiting times may not exceed 30 min. Consultations also provided in the evenings |
Special health-care services such as AOK-Sports and AOK-ProReha (additional services for patients requiring rehabilitation after surgery) |