[Individual patient satisfaction in 'Gesundes Kinzigtal': Interim results of a trend study].

INTRODUCTION

The integrated health care pilot model "Gesundes Kinzigtal" (GK) is recognized as a reference model for integrated healthcare in Germany. The aim of GK is to improve the health of the insured persons and, at the same time, to decrease their healthcare costs compared to usual care. The evaluation of GK has so far shown that GK might reach this aim. However, there are still no evaluation studies on GK focusing on patient-reported outcomes. This gap needs to be closed by a trend study, which is the main topic of this paper: We present interim results of this study, focusing on patient satisfaction with GK, insured persons' self-reported change of health behavior, their knowledge on health maintenance, and health-related quality of life.

METHOD

The baseline survey of the trend study was conducted in 2013: 3,034 members of GK were invited to complete a standardized questionnaire (by mail). In the first follow-up survey in 2015, 3,471 members were invited. Health-related quality of life was measured by EQ-5D and EQ-VAS; the other above-mentioned indicators were developed by our work group. Conducting variance analysis and logistic regression analysis using SPSS, it was analyzed to what extent the above-mentioned indicators changed between the first and the second survey.

RESULTS

The response rate was 23.4 % and 24.9 %, respectively. Overall patient satisfaction with GK and the mean EQ-5D value remained stable; the remaining indicators improved more or less over the course of time. Among these, the proportion of participants who indicated that they "now lead an overall healthier life" than before their enrolment into GK significantly increased from 25.6 % to 30.7 % (p=0.020).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The significant increase in the proportion of respondents who "now lead an overall healthier life" might be attributed to the fact that patient activation and empowerment was (and is) a top priority of the GK management strategy. Caution is advised, though, with this interpretation because of the limitations inherent to trend studies without an appropriate control group.