Generally speaking, all patients with a neurological disease may benefit from taking part in our scheme. Our medical focus is primarily on patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), muscular disorders or Multiple Sclerosis, various manifestations of motor dysfunction (e.g. Parkinson’s Disease) as well as stroke patients subsequently presenting with neurological syndromes.
Vorteile des Ambulanzpartner Versorgungsnetzwerks
“The notion of network-based care provision to patients with severe neurological diseases was born out of necessity, in our endeavor to promote patient empowerment,” say neurologists Professor Thomas Meyer und Professor Christoph Münch, founders of APST. In 2010, they started a web-based care network providing care to people with severe neurological diseases. From April 2011 to January 2018, more than 9,400 patients in our network received coordinated care tailored to their needs.
Digitales Versorgungsmanagement über Ambulanzpartner
Extreme challenges await people who have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). [Note: ALS is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system resulting in decline in strength, muscle dystrophy or stiffness]. Life changes in the blink of an eye. Regular visits to the doctor and organizing physiotherapy and speech therapy appointments become daily routine. Moreover, patients need to tend to administrative tasks such as submitting an application for disease status acknowledgement or getting a nutrition therapist involved. Another burden can be objection proceedings between patients and health insurance companies when patients have been denied vital assistive devices.
Versorgungsnetzwerk für Patienten
ALS is but one example that shows the enormous problems patients and their relatives are faced with in the organization of adequate outpatient care. One of the biggest challenges is to find specialists that get patients registered as eligible to receive the required care and initiate appropriate measures. Furthermore, all the stakeholders involved need coordinating: physicians, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, nutritional experts, speech therapists and pharmacists. What makes the situation even more troublesome is the fact that doctors are often not able to expend the time actually required to see to the complex ATD provision needs of patients most severely affected with disease. Providers in the assistive technology devices and therapeutics sector also encounter difficulties in mutually coordinating their processes. Many patients are unable to cope with the task of getting their lives organized or waste time and energy in the process.
The APST care network offers support for the coordinated provision of assistive technology devices, therapeutics and medication. As of January 2018, our network comprises physiotherapists (n=561), occupational therapists (n=180), speech therapists (n=201), assistive technology devices suppliers (n=247), pharmacists (n=12), nutritional therapists (n=181), physicians (n=231), nursing care institutions (n=51) and outpatient care services (n=151). Our care network was initiated in 2010 for patients with ALS, primarily resident in the Berlin and Brandenburg areas. Since 2013, we have been working on our nationwide service for patients with severe neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease or stroke patients.
Some of the key concerns patients and their relatives have is finding the most appropriate therapies and organizing a care setting in which they are provided with high-end assistive devices and state-of-the art therapeutics. Patients with severe neurological diseases benefit from acute care in hospitals or rehabilitation clinics. In an outpatient setting, however, they are given little, often insufficient support in the organization of their needs. In complex diseases that call for challenging therapies there is an increasing need for specialized care and drug therapy. By joining forces with APST, the situation these patients find themselves in can become easier; relief is underway for everyone involved. APST has a network of partners specialized in the provision of the care that patients need. The specialist APST network captures the patients’ care needs, identifies suitable providers and suppliers and coordinates any necessary measures. It is the patient who decides if APST organizes their entire scope of care or individual parts thereof. All the care processes are initiated and implemented by a coordinator who is also a personal contact for patients and their relatives.
Angebote im Ambulanzpartner Netzwerk
APST provides not only a network of specialist partners but also an Internet portal (www.ambulanzpartner.de) that functions as an electronic patient record (EPR). Following registration, all the relevant care data are captured, thus giving patients an overview of all the required therapies, assistive technology devices, therapeutics, care services or prescribed medication that have either been delivered already or that have pending applications waiting for approval. Furthermore, the platform serves as a digital means of communication available to all the people involved.
APST supports the provision of standard care as defined by the Social Code. Responsibility for medical necessity and rentability of therapies, assistive technology devices, therapeutics and medication as well as responsibility for the medical indication remains with the attending doctor. The verification of medical necessity and rentability lies within the scope of responsibility of the medical service of health insurance companies (Medizinischer Dienst der Krankenkassen, MDK).
Economic viability and rentability of care is established modelled on existing direct contracts or by rentability checks performed by health insurers who get quotes from various companies. The doctor defines the care need on an individual patient basis. APST comes into play once the indication for a specific treatment and care provision has been established. The APST organization and management structure makes the care process the doctor has defined more efficient.
The APST schedule for the provision of assistive technology devices and therapeutics: the procedure adheres to the following structured schedule:
| 1) the doctor establishes the indication for a specific assistive device; 2) the patient commissions the coordinator to support them in the care provision process (care provision request); 3) the coordinator receives the care provision request; 4) the patient confirms the care provision request; 5) the coordinator identifies a suitable provider; 6) the provider receives and acknowledges the care provision request; 7) the provider visits the patient and suggests specific care provision (device); 8) the patient confirms the suggested care provision (device); 9) the provider submits the suggestion for a prescription device; 10) the coordinator forwards the suggested prescription to the doctor; 11) the doctor checks and verifies the suggested prescription; 12) the doctor issues a prescription for the assistive device and forwards it to the coordinator; 13) the coordinator receives and forwards the prescription to the provider; 14) the provider receives the prescription; 15) the provider submits an application for cost absorption for the prescription device. |
APST provides not only a network but also an internet portal (www.ambulanzpartner.de) that functions as an electronic patient record (EPR). Following registration, all the relevant care data are captured, thus giving patients an overview of all the required therapies, assistive technology devices, therapeutics, care services or prescribed medication that have either been delivered already or that have pending applications waiting for approval. Furthermore, the platform serves as a digital means of communication available to all the people involved
Die elektronische Versorgungsakte eines Patienten
Patients (or their authorized relatives) are given the option of rating the assistive technology devices, therapeutics and medication they have been provided with as well as their care providers, therapists and doctors. On the APST Internet portal, patients may find structured online questionnaires that allow them to rate their satisfaction with treatments, assistive devices or care provision.
The rating tool generates data on the individual needs of patients while under medical care. The ratings are anonymized and made available to the various key players. For various reasons, this information is of interest to different user groups: a doctor may use the self-rating information to improve treatment while therapists and medical equipment and supply stores may use feedback to optimize their own services and products.
Beispiel einer Patientenbewertung: Weiterempfehlung des Ambulanzpartner Versorgungsnetzwerks anhand des Net Promoter Scores („Wie wahrscheinlich ist es, dass Sie das Ambulanzpartner Versorgungsnetzwerk einem Freund oder Kollegen weiterempfehlen würden?“)
