Wundmanagement 2/2013

Do integrated care programmes ensure a proper flow of information?

N. Egbert, U. Hübner

Wundmanagement 2013; 2:54–60

Integrated Care offers the opportunity to realise interdisciplinary and multiprofessional care. In light of a high demand for interdisciplinarity and multiprofessionalism in wound care and the resulting demand for information exchange and coordination we ask the question whether integrated care contracts are the appropriate instrument for achieving these goals. In order to answer this question we searched for freely available contracts in the Internet. In total, eight contracts were available of which 6 covered the Diabetic Foot Syndrome and 2 chronic wound in general. The contracts were analysed with regard to the contract partners, their interaction, the financial basis of the interaction, the requirements for a wound record and the information exchange among the partners. We found that the foundations of information exchange, i.e. the definition of the stakeholders, their interaction, its financial basis and recommended items in the wound record were well described. However, the exchange of information itself was only insufficiently addressed. Precise requirements in terms of on time exchange of comprehensive, legible and signed patient information among the stakeholders including the patients themselves were missing. Only partly the use of electronic means was mentioned. New contracts must therefore take into account the field of information exchange and must define the pertinent content and processes – under full reserve of the informational selfdetermination of the patient.

Keywords:
integrated care, chronic wounds, information management