“Which way should we go?“ This forward-looking title introduced an expert interview published in the journal MTD Dialog ahead of the homecare congress to be held in Berlin on 13 and 14 October. The interviewee was Wulf-Diethardt Rieck, Senior Consultant at pfm medical and spokesperson for the Homecare specialist group within BVMed, Germany’s medical technology industry organisation. Rieck addressed the growing importance of homecare in service provision.
As he made clear, homecare is not simply care at home but refers instead to the entire outpatient provision of medical devices, dressings and enteral nutrition. Providers of homecare services play an important role in this challenging area, helping to ensure that patients receive professional quality care in their own home environment. The principle is that community–based is preferable to hospital.
To quote Rieck, “Fortunately the technological developments in medical products are increasingly helping to support care in the home environment and are making it easier.” The social context is changing dramatically. The number of old people – who often require care – will increase drastically in the coming years. At the same time, nurses and doctors are expected to become ever scarcer. This will mean homecare takes on enormous importance as a model for service provision including both product-specific and patient-specific services.
Homecare service providers decide, with reference to the doctor’s prescription, which product is required. They then deliver it and ensure that the patient uses it correctly. This means they take on a pivotal role in community-based service provision. The patients and the quality of their care are always at the forefront.
Raimund Koch, spokesperson for BVMed’s publicity group, also took part in the interview. He added that everyone involved in the process of service provision needs to pull together. “The whole thing hinges on the quality of care, networking and cooperation” he said.
The Homecare Management Congress being organised by BVMed at the Aesculap Academy aims to help improve interface management. The Congress will be held on 13 and 14 October in the august surroundings of the former Charité lecture theatre. Rieck explained that its aim will be “to harmonise the various existing quality standards on the basis of unified targets, to define quality in terms favouring the patient and in a way that can be checked and if possible to bring these together as treatment paths.” He hopes to create an awareness of existing and future challenges and to find new approaches to problem solving.
In this connection Rieck will also flag up controversial health policy questions facing decision makers in the health sector and encourage open discussion of these questions. Rieck demands “that politicians give a clear declaration of support for community-based provision.”
The congress in Berlin is the first to be dedicated exclusively to homecare topics. According to Rieck it is directed primarily at senior figures in the field of community-based service provision who “are interested in shaping the framework in which community-based services are provided and who tackle strategic questions.” It addresses key people from every part of the service supply chain including community-based and hospital doctors and nurses, representatives of health care funds and the political world, and other service Providers.
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