Abstract
BackgroundThe political objective in many countries worldwide is to give better consideration to the interests of patients within the health system. The establishment of a federal government commissioner for the issues of patients in the health system in Germany in 2004 is part of these endeavours. The structure and field of activities of this institution has been unique so far. This study investigates for the first time the inquiries the commissioner receives from the public.MethodsA 33% sampling (n = 850) of the written inquiries (correspondence and e-mails) addressed to the commissioner in the first six months of the year 2005 (n = 2580) was investigated. In a procedure comprising combined qualitative and quantitative levels, the material was thematically encoded and the inquiries allocated to the resulting categories (multiple nominations). The results are presented in descriptive form and investigated especially with respect to sex and age-specific differences. The interdependences between the categorized criteria are analysed.ResultsThe inquirers are equally spread out amongst the sexes (49% women, 51% men). Older persons outweigh the younger (69% over 60 years). In most cases the issues take the form of claims (72%, n = 609). In every fifth inquiry (n = 168) the personal financial burden for health services is considered as being too high; about equally high (n = 159) is the proportion of persons who criticize the communication with health professionals, especially hospitals and doctors' surgeries. Every third who mentions a medical practice uses terms such as "uncertainty" and "anxiety". It is conspicuous that men more often than women write that they feel unfairly treated in the health system (62% vs. 38%, p < 0.05).ConclusionPredominantly older persons seek the assistance of the federal government commissioner for patient issues. Considerable uncertainty and anxiety with respect to services and charges within the system of the German health insurances become evident. It is not possible from the data to draw conclusions concerning the impact of the commissioner's work on the health system. Nor do we gain any knowledge about the usefulness of the service for the individual. Therefore, evaluation of the political impact and the user satisfaction should follow.
Highlights
The political objective in many countries worldwide is to give better consideration to the interests of patients within the health system
Improving the position of patients within the health system is a vital aspiration in many countries with comparably high health care standards [1,2,3,4,5,6]
These endeavours are based on the well-founded – but empirically not sufficiently verified – assumption that participation of well informed patients and their representatives in decisionmaking processes would improve the different levels of health care [7]
Summary
The political objective in many countries worldwide is to give better consideration to the interests of patients within the health system. Improving the position of patients within the health system is a vital aspiration in many countries with comparably high health care standards [1,2,3,4,5,6] These endeavours are based on the well-founded – but empirically not sufficiently verified – assumption that participation of well informed patients and their representatives in decisionmaking processes would improve the different levels of health care [7]. Patients' interests are already represented by numerous institutions with different focus [8], a legal regulation for the institutionalisation of patients' issues came about for the first time with the health reform in the year 2000: 30 nationwide model projects for independent patient consultation and user information were subsidized by leading associations of the health insurances (according §65b code of social law V.) [3]. The tasks of the patient commissioner are defined in the code of social law as follows:
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