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Background: The “Holistic Care Program for Elderly Patients to Integrate Spiritual Needs, Social Activity and Self-Care into Disease Management in Primary Care” (HoPES3) examines the implementation of a spiritual history (SH) as part of a multifaceted intervention in German general practices. While the effectiveness of the interventions was evaluated in a cluster-randomized trial, this article investigates the patients’ views concerning the acceptability of the SH and its effects. Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted in which 133 patients of the intervention group filled in a standardized questionnaire after the intervention. Later, 29 of these patients took part in qualitative semi-standardized interviews. Results: According to the survey, 63% (n = 77) of patients found the SH helpful. In the interviews, however, many indicated that they either kept the conversation brief or declined the offer to talk about spirituality. Contents of longer conversations referred to difficult life events, personal sources of strength, and experiences with religious institutions. Many patients who had a longer conversation about spirituality reported that their relationship with their general practitioner (GP) had improved. Almost all patients recommended integrating a personal conversation of this kind into primary care. Conclusions: The SH seems to be a possible ‘door opener’ for a trusting doctor-patient relationship, which can then be built upon.

Background High continuity of care has a positive impact on health outcomes, but insight into the mechanisms underlying this impact is limited. Information continuity, on which our study focuses, is especially important when relational continuity is not given, which is often the case at hospital admission or hospital discharge. The aim of this study is to provide insight into the information flows between general practices and hospitals in Germany, and to identify factors associated with these flows of information. Methods This is a qualitative interview study in a purposeful sample of staff from hospitals and general practices (general practitioners, care assistants in general practice, hospital management, hospital physicians, and nursing staff). Interviews were conducted via telephone or face-to-face using a self-developed semi-structured interview guide. Stepwise systematic content analysis was used to structure collected material into themes and sub-themes that related to the study aim. Data was analysed by two researchers in several cycles, alternating between inductive and deductive approaches. Results A total of 49 interviews were conducted. Duration of the interviews varies between 21 and 78 min (mean duration 43 min). Across all groups, more than two thirds of participants were female (n = 34, 69%). The analysis highlighted six interdependent main themes regarding factors that affect information flows between hospitals and general practices: organisational, legal, financial, patient factors, individual characteristics, and emotional & social factors. The latter theme emerged as particularly rich and was therefore divided into four subthemes: appreciation and understanding of the respective other, (intrinsic) motivation, socialisation, and relationships. Organised meetings and events were mentioned as strategies to address emotional and social factors. Conclusions Digitalisation can facilitate information flows between care providers. However, knowing each other and good personal relations remain important for effective collaboration. Cooperation between all stakeholders is needed to aim to achieve continuity of care. Trial registration: DRKS00015183 on DRKS/ Universal Trial Number (UTN): U1111-1218–0992. Date of registration 23/08/2018.

Item does not contain fulltext Background: Key recommendations for the management of patients with polypharmacy are structured medication counselling (SMC), medication lists and systematic medication reviews. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify determinants (hindering and facilitating factors) for the implementation of the recommendations in general practice. Methods: This study was linked to a tailored intervention aimed at improving the implementation of the recommendations in German general practice. Interviews and focus groups with different healthcare professionals were carried out in the design phase and after delivery of the intervention. The material from both data collections was analysed separately in a content analytical approach resulting in two sets of categories. For this study, the subcategories of both sets were assigned to the Tailoring Interventions for Chronic Diseases (TICD) checklist, a comprehensive framework of determinants of practice. Results: Interviews with 24 general practitioners (GPs), 4 other medical specialists, 1 pharmacist, 3 nurses and 6 medical assistants as well as 2 mixed focus groups with 17 professionals were conducted. We identified 93 determinants: 29 referred to medication counselling, 21 to the use of medication lists, 20 to medications reviews and 23 to all recommendations. The determinants were related to all 7 main domains and to 25 of the 57 subdomains on the TICD checklist including guideline factors, patient factors, individual healthcare professional factors, social, political and legal factors, incentives and resources, and capacity for organizational change. Conclusion: While many interventions to improve polypharmacy focus on the provision of pharmacological knowledge, a much wider range of domains need to be addressed, such as communication skills, patient involvement and practice organization.

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Hausarzte zahlen zu den Facharztgruppen mit den haufigsten Medikamenten-verordnungen. Die Vertiefung pharmakologischer Kenntnisse ist deshalb ein wichtiger Bestandteil der hausarztlichen Fort- und Weiterbildung. Das hausarztliche Selbstverstandnis, als erster Ansprechpartner bei allen Gesundheitsproblemen zu helfen, macht es zu einer Herausforderung, Weiterbildungsinhalte zu definieren und zu erwerben. Wahrend das von der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Allgemeinmedizin entwickelte „Kompetenzbasierte Curriculum Allgemeinmedizin" essentielle Diagnosen, Beratungsanlasse und Kompetenzen fur die hausarztliche Tatigkeit definiert, fehlt eine solche Orientierung fur den pharmakologischen Bereich. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist, Wirkstoffe zu identifizieren und zu charakterisieren, die jeder Hausarzt so gut beherrschen sollte, dass er dazu beraten und Monitoringmasnahmen einleiten und durchfuhren kann. Methodik Es wurden die Verordnungen von Privat- und Kassenrezepten aller am CONTENT-Projekt teilnehmenden Praxen des Zeitraums 2009 bis 2014 analysiert. Die Analyse wurde auf oral applizierbare Wirkstoffe beschrankt, die von mindestens 25% (n=11) der Hausarztpraxen mindestens einmal verordnet wurden. Wahrend die hundert am haufigsten verordneten Wirkstoffe, die bereits uber 80% der Gesamtverordnungen ausmachten, aufgrund ihrer Verordnungshaufigkeit eingeschlossen wurden, wurden die weniger haufig verordneten Wirkstoffe in einem Rating-Verfahren zusatzlich nach ihrem Risikopotential und der hausarztlichen Relevanz beurteilt. Die auf dieser Basis eingeschlossenen Wirkstoffe wurden nach Beratungsanlassen/Diagnosen klassifiziert dargestellt. Ergebnisse Es wurden 1.912.896 Einzelverordnungen auf Basis der anatomisch-therapeutisch-chemischen Klassifikation (ATC) aus 44 Hausarztpraxen von 112.535 Patienten analysiert. Nach Anwendung der Einschlusskriterien verblieben 453 Wirkstoffe, von denen 302 Wirkstoffe als hausarztlich-relevant eingeschatzt wurden. Diese konnten 45 Beratungsanlassen/Diagnosen zugeordnet werden. Schlussfolgerung Das Ergebnis dieser Arbeit kann als Entwicklungsversion eines hausarztlich-pharmakologischen Curriculums gesehen werden und perspektivisch das kompetenzbasierte Curriculum Allgemeinmedizin sinnvoll erganzen.

General practitioners (GPs) are among the specialists who prescribe the highest number of medication. Therefore the improvement of pharmacological competencies is an important part of the GP specialist training. The self-concept of general practice stating that GPs are the first contact persons for all health problems makes it challenging to define and acquire competencies for specialist training. While the "Competence-based Curriculum" developed by the German College of General Practitioners and Family Physicians defines diagnoses, reasons for counselling and competencies which are essential for general practice, a similar orientation guide is lacking for the pharmacological field. The aim of this study is to define and characterize pharmacological substances which every GP should know so well that he or she is able to conduct counselling and monitoring.We analysed private and public health insurance prescriptions of all general practices participating in the CONTENT project in the period from 2009 to 2014. The analysis was limited to substances with oral application which were prescribed at least once by at least 25 % (n = 11) of the practices. While the 100 most frequent prescriptions were included due to their frequency, less frequently prescribed substances were assessed concerning their relevance for general practice in a rating procedure. The substances included were classified by diagnoses and reasons for counselling.We analysed 1,912,896 prescriptions from 44 practices and 112,535 patients on the basis of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system. After applying the inclusion criteria, 453 substances were left, 302 of which were considered relevant for general practice and could be assigned to 45 diagnoses / reasons for counselling.The result of this study could be considered a working draft for a pharmacological curriculum for general practice, which may complement the "Competence-based Curriculum" in the medium term.