Communication Pathways and Difficulties with Nursing Homes and Digital Perspectives: A Survey of German General Practitioners

Abstract

To outline basic information on communication structures and obstacles between GPs and nursing homes as well as GPs' perspectives on usage of E-health technology. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study carried out among n=600 randomly selected GPs in Germany sent by mail. The response rate was 20% (n=114). The respondent's mean age was 53 years (min=35; max=77), two-thirds were women (65%). GPs mainly used fax (92%) and telephone (87%) to communicate with nursing homes. Less than 10% routinely used digital technologies like E-mail (7%), E-health software (6%) or chat-services (1%). About half of GPs reported unnecessary (52%) or unspecific (51%) nursing home visit requests as well as unreported medication plan changes by other physicians (51%) as a common but avoidable problem. Many GPs wanted to use E-medication plans (85%), E-follow-up prescriptions (79%) and E-letters of referral (69%) in the future. 33% of GPs were already using fully digitalized patient files. Only 9% worked exclusively paper-based. Though GPs are open to digitalized communication with nursing homes, fax and telephone are still mostly used. GPs prefer to execute less complex tasks digitally, such as change of medication plans and letters of referral. Fewer can imagine digital solutions for complex procedures such as acute health problems and ward rounds. Only 8% do not want to work digitally at all.