Maturity Assessment Process - Optimedis, Germany

The organisations responsible for the assessment process are:

• the OptiMedis AG
• Gesunder Werra-Meißner-Kreis GmbH
  

The objective of this process was to assess the readiness of the Werra-Meißner County, Germany to adopt integrated care.

The region

The region of Werra-Meißner-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany, has a population of approximately 100,000 citizens. It experiences familiar challenges for healthcare services, in the demographics of the region and in terms of recruitment and retention of staff. The top 3 causes of death are: Ischaemic heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, malignant neoplasm of the bronchi and lungs.

The goal of Gesunder Werra-Meißner Kreis Ltd. (GWMK) is to improve health literacy, care coordination and offer guidance in the German healthcare system and thereby, to reduce the projected increase of costs of health insurance and support integrated care. To achieve its goal, GWMK is building a “health network” with insurance members as well as healthcare professionals. The integrated care region here was first established in 2018.

Integrated care in Werra-Meißner-Kreis

The maturity assessment process was fully conducted in German and comprised two stages:

• individual self-assessments, completed by each stakeholder; and
  
• a face-to-face workshop with an objective to reach the consensus among all participating stakeholders on the final level of maturity for integrated care.

Strengths identified through the Maturity Assessment process

• Citizen Empowerment – Implementation of health navigators supporting patients in pharmacies, GP & therapist practices.
• Process Coordination – Regional integrated care management provides organization for intersectoral care and the human resources to build capacity within the network.

Weaknesses identified through the Maturity Assessment process

• Digital Infrastructure – Working towards building a streamlined electronic health record across network practices.
• Population approach – Currently 24% of population are covered within the our networks based on the contracted health insurances.

As a region, Werra-Meißner is at the early stage of the change cycle to implement integrated care. Having local champions and leaders to lead this work is important. New digitalisation options are being explored in order to facilitate process coordination on an institutional level and self-management on the individual patient level.

Gesunder Werra-Meißner-Kreis GmbH gives an approach within the existing fundamental structural of the German health care system, building an incentive framework for professionals and advancing the digital transformation of the region.

The team from Optimedis & Gesunder Werra-Meißner Kreis also shared their insights in one of our knowledge exchange webinars, to describe the process of participating in SCIROCCO Exchange. To view the webinar, follow this link.

The spider diagram illustrates the outcomes of the final consensus on the maturity for integrated care in Gesunder Werra-Meißner-Kreis GmbH. The scoring on the final spider diagram indicates the early stage of integrated care in this region.

The final report which will provide much more detailed information about the region and the process is available to download in the Maturity Assessment Reports section in Resources.