An important part of outpatient care is the coordination of the necessary care and the coordination of all parties involved providing such care. APST offers digitally supported care management, leading to an enhanced coordination and interconnectedness between patients, physicians as well as care providers (providers of assistive and medical devices, pharmacists and nutritionists; so called “care providers”).
We offer care management for patients with special constraints and needs for the provision of their care:
in case of diseases with special constraints:
- severe diseases (e. g. stroke)
- complex chronic diseases (e. g. multiple sclerosis)
- rare or orphan diseases (e. g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
in case of providing care for special needs:
- high organisational requirements for patients and medical partners
- requiring a high degree of specialisation to ensure the quality of care provided
- requiring a high degree of coordination between separate medical practitioners and providers of care
The care management serves the communication and interconnectedness between patients, physicians and providers of care. We offer care management for the following areas of care provision:
Based on your symptoms and medical condition your physician determines your individual need of assistive devices. Thereupon APST will be notified of the specifications. Based on the specifications APST identifies adequate providers of assistive devices. APST’s aim in this scenario is to connect patients with adequate providers of assistive devices.
Determination of the need for an assistive device
The patient is being diagnosed with a disease at a certain progression. According to the clinical assessment the physician proposes a treatment concept. Based on the patient’s precise need the physician makes an indication for the supply with an assistive device, e g a wheelchair. During a patient physician consultation the patient is being informed of the need and the organisational steps involved with the supply.
Care needs coordination
The patient consents to a coordinator from APST organising the different supply tasks and to contacting a specialised care provider. After the patient physician consultation the coordinator will be informed of the specific need. The coordinator will then contact the patient and gather further information on the patient’s individual life situation and living environment. Based on the medical assessment and the patient’s social information adequate providers of assistive devices are being contacted. In our example contact will be made with a medical supply store specialised on wheelchairs. Matching and fine tuning the different providers of assistive devices warrants for the devices being good fits for the patient and an optimum of usability.
Complementing standard supply
Care management by APST with technological support of the internet platform is provided within the established standard care system. The attending physician’s responsibility for the necessity and economics of the assistive devices remains untouched. APST’s service consists of contacting an adequate provider of assistive devices, who has the necessary qualification, experience and a supply contract with the patient’s health insurer upon the patient’s instruction.
APST supports patients in Berlin and Brandenburg who want to find the right physiotherapist, occupational therapist or speech therapist. APST coordinates a network of therapy practices in the Berlin area.
A doctor sees the need for a remedy, such as physiotherapy, and issues a medical prescription. In the next step, the patient instructs an APST coordinator to identify a specialised therapeutic practice. Three criteria play a role: the professional suitability of the practice, the proximity to the patient's home or (if necessary) the possibility of a home visit, and the available capacity to care for the patient. The coordinator forwards the request for care and the doctor's prescription to the therapy practice, which contacts the patient directly to arrange an appointment.
Three areas can be distinguished in which the coordination of physiotherapy or occupational therapy as well as speech therapy through APST is beneficial for patients:
Qualification
The providers in the therapist network have a specialisation for the treatment of neurological diseases. In principle, after completing training, every therapist is qualified to treat neuromuscular diseases. However, in addition to formal training, daily experience is crucial for the quality of treatment. By specialising in neurological and neuromuscular diseases, additional expertise can be acquired. Further qualification characteristics can be achieved through training and job shadowing with neurologists and other specialists.
Prescription management
Ambulanzpartner coordinates the prescription processes between doctor, patient and care partners. The standardisation of the initial and repeat issuing of prescriptions as well as the electronic documentation on the APST portal reduces organisational expenses for the patient, doctor and therapist. The predominantly electronic processing of prescription procedures reduces the number of necessary telephone calls and the associated interruptions in outpatient clinic and practice operations.
Feedback on the treatment success
An innovative instrument for quality improvement is the feedback tool within the APST internet portal. With the evaluation of physiotherapy, logotherapy and occupational therapy by the patients themselves, the therapists receive an evaluation of the subjective benefits and possible burdens of their treatment for the patient. Via a personal password, the patient receives access to his or her individual electronic account, in which the ongoing therapies are recorded and the patient has the possibility of an evaluation of the therapy effect. This feedback is confidential and thus differs in principle from public doctor and therapist evaluation portals.
To use the services of APST, patients sign the declaration of consent for participation in APST and the use of their data. You can find the document here.
Medication treatment is a key component of therapies. Through a modern organisational structure and electronic documentation, the Ambulanzpartner care network helps to simplify care for patients, doctors and pharmacists and to increase medication safety and therapy adherence.
Electronic medication plan
On APST portal, patients and doctors have the option of viewing and printing an overview of current and past medication in the form of an electronic medication plan. In addition, they can make confidential assessments of medication and services and thus contribute to the improvement of care processes.
Improvement of medication safety
APST cooperates with specialised pharmacies that offer a service telephone for patients in the Ambulanzpartner care network. On weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., patients, relatives as well as nursing staff and doctors have the opportunity to receive advice on existing medication treatment.
The contact persons are pharmacists who are specialised in the medication of patients in the outpatient care network. They can clarify questions about side effects of medicines, their combinability as well as tips on practical medication intake and reducing the risks of side effects.
Simple and fast supply of medicines
Patients receive the medicines prescribed at their doctor's visit delivered to their home without having to go to a pharmacy themselves. The supply is processed on the same day by the pharmacy cooperating with APST. Due to the specialisation of the partner pharmacies in the patient groups of APST, the medicines are always in stock or immediately available. Medications that have already been prescribed can be easily reordered by telephone.
To use the services of APST, patients sign the declaration of consent to participate in APST. You will receive the document from APST or can find it here.
Registration of the co-payment waiver
The services of APST are free of charge. Due to legal considerations within the health care system, pharmacies are obliged to collect medication co-payments from legally insured persons and to forward them to the health insurance companies. If you are not exempt from the co-payment or are privately insured, you will receive an invoice from the cooperating pharmacy.
The cooperating pharmacies of APST offer to electronically record the co-payment made and to inform the patient when the co-payment limit is reached. With the receipt of the co-payments made, the patient is able to submit the application for a co-payment waiver to the statutory health insurance.
Do not hesitate to contact us regarding the APST care management at any time. Please contact:
APST GmbH
Westhafenstraße 1
13353 Berlin
T: +49 (0)30-8103141-0
F: +49 (0)30-20164002
koordination@ambulanzpartner.de
