GBA healthcare research - COMPANION - Development of a patient-centered nationally applicable complexity and case mix classification for adult palliative patients based on needs and resource consumption
- Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Claudia Bausewein
- Affiliation: Department of Palliative Medicine
- Funding: since 2019
The seriously ill and dying suffer from many physical, psychological, social, spiritual and practical problems. Their characteristics and interaction describe the complexity of care for dying people. So far there is no reliable classification for this complexity in Germany that can help to better differentiate whether patients need general or specialized palliative care. General palliative care is provided on an outpatient basis by general practitioners and specialists, as well as outpatient nursing services, and inpatient in hospitals and in nursing homes. If the therapeutic possibilities of general palliative care are insufficient, specialists from specialized palliative care who work in palliative departments, palliative services and specialized outpatient palliative care (SAPV) are included.
The project aims to develop a classification for adult palliative patients based on the complexity of the palliative patient situation and the associated costs (personnel, medication and diagnostics). For this purpose, data from over 2,000 patients and the individual costs in German palliative facilities are collected. In addition, the use of outpatient and inpatient palliative care facilities is to be described and compared with patient data using data from the statutory health insurance. The project will be funded for three years with a total of approx. 2.7 million euros.
If successful, palliative care can be better tailored to the needs of the patient, thus avoiding the situation where patients who need specialized care are only given general care and those with less complex needs come to specialized palliative care. Overall, three goals can be achieved: 1) a better understanding of the needs of patients at the end of life, 2) more needs-based access to palliative care, and 3) more efficient distribution of resources to meet these needs.
Source: GBA Innovationsfonds