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Background/objective: Since 2024, according to the guidelines on the treatment of proximal femoral fractures of the German Joint Federal Committee (QSFFx-RL), the geriatric qualification of physicians is the new quality standard for the daily guarantee of geriatric competence in the care of fractures near the hip joint in hospitals. The article examines whether there are enough physicians qualified in geriatrics available to implement this quality standard in practice., Material and Methods: The data were based on physician statistics, quality assurance procedures and hospital billing records. The available geriatric competence was determined on the basis of physicians with the required geriatric qualifications and potential orthogeriatric cooperation partners, hospital locations with guideline cases using the main diagnoses and procedures., Results: The total increase in the number of physicians qualified in geriatrics for 2023 can be estimated at around 4800 (of whom 2700 are active in inpatient and 1700 in outpatient fields). In 2022 there were 1005 hospital locations with > 20 guideline cases, 55% of which also offered geriatric services. A total of 908 geriatric locations (hospital/rehabilitation) and 1476 contract doctors were identified as potential cooperation partners. Only 4.6% of hospital locations with > 20 guideline cases did not have a potential geriatric location within a distance radius of ≤ 20 km., Discussion: The number of physicians qualified in geriatrics and potential geriatric cooperation partners, the long transition period, already established local geriatric care services and the possibility of using telemedicine support the feasibility of implementing the new quality standard; however, the planned exclusion of geriatric consultations on request starting in 2027 will require even more physicians qualified in geriatrics., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Objective: Preventive home visits (PHV) are a measure for promoting the health of elderly people. A study of these measures used over the past 40 years in many countries across the globe revealed a very diverse picture regarding targeted groups, applied structures and intervention contents. So far, there has been no clear evidence of their effectiveness on outcomes such as mortality, need for care, hospital or nursing home admissions. However, a steady increase in PHV programmes in Germany warrants an examination of the current national practice., Material/methods: PHV programmes in Germany were identified in the course of Internet-based research (January 2018) and systematically compared by means of nine criteria that were defined beforehand., Results: 38 PHV programmes were included: 26 currently implemented, and 12 that have been terminated. These showed a considerable variety in terms of their programme components. Medicine-oriented and social environment-oriented programmes (n=8 vs. n=24) could be differentiated. Relevant differentiation criteria were sponsorship, profession of home visitors and intervention contents. Thus, the practice in Germany is characterised as follows: municipal sponsorship, social workers conducting home visits, and guidance by consulting services disregarding integrated case management. Programmes of this type mainly emerged only in the current decade., Conclusions: PHV for elderly people evolved from initially medicine-oriented into rather social environment-oriented programmes of municipal public service. They target elderly people with unclear need for support who, at the same time, are confronted with barriers to accessing suitable services. The anticipated main effect of PHV relates to the safeguarding of social participation. However, evidence for their effectiveness, still pending, should be made available before a broad or even legally anchored application is envisaged., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background: Preventive home visits (PHV) document health resources and risks in the domestic environment in order to derive preventive recommendations. An earlier review did not yield reliable proof of their efficacy for the elderly; however, PHV are used increasingly more as a municipal service in Germany., Objective: This article evaluates the efficacy of PHV by means of evidence-based criteria., Material and Methods: Independent of the reason, randomized controlled studies (RCT) and systematic reviews on PHV in the elderly (60+ years) that were published after 2004 were identified by means of searching pertinent literature databases. The outcomes evaluated were mortality, hospitalization, admission to nursing home, functional status, falls and quality of life., Results: The 12 RCT included (for the first time including a German trial) showed a high clinical heterogeneity, good methodological quality and only few bias potentials. As few as 6 out of the 12 RCT showed positive effects for individual outcomes, rarely exceeding the period of the intervention and partly limited to individual subgroups; however, almost no negative effects were reported. The four review articles included did not show any reliable proof of efficacy of PHV regarding any of the evaluated outcomes either., Conclusion: In the current literature no clear proof of the efficacy of PHV could be identified. No structure or process features having an efficacy regarding several outcomes could be derived either. Thus, the current use of PHV is still being made without any clear evidence of efficacy.

Background: Quality checks of the independent German Health Insurance Medical Service in in-patient nursing care facilities pursuant to Articles 114 et seqq. SGB XI [11th Book of the Social Code] also comprise the Pflegerische Medikamentenversorgung (PMV) [drug supply by nursing personnel]. Irregularities are described in quality reports in the reviewer’s own words. This investigation was intended to categorise the reasons for the above irregularities. Methods: The bases for the examination are the reports of quality checks of all of in-patient nursing care facilities conducted in 2014 (regular quality checks) in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein (N = 671), in which the PMV was examined for 5 742 randomly selected residents. Results: With regard to the documentation, inexplicable drug intakes (5.8 %) were found most frequently, followed by missing information on dosages and application provisions (0.8 % each), which were registered as irregularities at the residents. In the documentation of on-demand medication, insufficient indication data (3.2 %), missing daily maximum dosages (0.8 %) and missing single doses (0.6 %) were most commonly ascertained. The most frequent reasons for medication handling irregularities for the residents were false positioning (6.0 %), missing and respectively false data on consumption and on when the medical packaging was opened (3.5 %), as well as medication not directly administered using the blister (0.7 %). As for subordinate classifications of false positioning, incorrect dosages were revealed most often, followed by drugs with an exceeded expiry date and by out-of-stock drugs. Systematic patient-related factors with influence on PMV could not be determined. Conclusions: The extent of the irregularities and their type prompt a further increase in the efforts to improve the quality of nursing care facilities. The results can be used as a basis for designing specific initiatives to improve the PMV.