A complex health services intervention to improve medical care in long-term care homes: study protocol of the controlled coordinated medical care (CoCare) study.

Background: Deficits in general and specialized on-site medical care are a common problem in nursing homes and can lead to unnecessary, costly and burdensome hospitalizations for residents. Reasons for this are often organizational obstacles (such as lack of infrastructure or communication channels) and unfavorable compensation structures, which impede the implementation of adequate medical care. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a complex intervention aiming to improve the coordination of medical care in long-term care nursing homes in Germany.