[Alternative care concepts for low-acuity emergency medical service missions in the German ambulance service: Descriptive results of an online survey].

Introduction: In Germany, the number of emergency missions has been rising for several years. At the same time, it can be observed that the amount of missions involving emergency physicians is decreasing, while the number of outpatient treatments without transport is increasing. To cope with this situation, different alternative care concepts have been developed as complementary resources throughout Germany.

What do community paramedics in Germany do regarding the care of older people? A retrospective, descriptive analysis of low-acuity cases.

Background: Non-life-threatening cases treated by emergency services have been increasing in recent years, especially in older people. In a region in Germany with approximately 600,000 inhabitants, the role of a specially trained community paramedic (Gemeindenotfallsanitäter, G-NFS) was introduced in 2019. The G-NFS is dispatched to low-acuity requests, attends the assignment alone and is allowed to treat patients at home.

Implementing telemedicine with 5G technologies in a nursing home for reducing emergency admissions- study protocol of a mixed-methods study.

Background: By transmitting various types of data, telemedical care enables the provision of care where physicians and patients are physically separated. In nursing homes, telemedicine has the potential to reduce hospital admissions in nonemergency situations. In this study, telemedicine devices were implemented with the new 5G mobile communications standard in selected wards of a large nursing home in Northwest Germany.

[Reasons for non-participation in a patient survey in the context of prehospital emergency medical care by community emergency paramedics - A retrospective observational study].

Background: In order to evaluate whether the new rescue means "community emergency paramedics" (Gemeindenotfallsanitäter [G-NFS]) relieves the emergency medical service (EMS) in the care of low-priority emergencies, the perspective of general practitioners and patients was also surveyed in a written questionnaire as part of an innovation fund project. Recruitment for participation in the study proved to be difficult. The aim of this study is to evaluate why the G-NFS decided against providing information on study participation and what measures would be necessary to include more emergency patients in surveys in the future.

[Frequency and characteristics of interventions by community paramedics on people in need of care : Analysis of 2,410 deployment protocols for people aged 65+ years].

Background: The aim of this study was to obtain a differentiated view of interventions delivered by community paramedics (Gemeindenotfallsanitäter, G‑NFS) in older people in need of care living in nursing homes and at home.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis of G‑NFS documentation from 2021 with a focus on patients aged ≥65 years was performed. Data were grouped into callouts to nursing homes or private homes.

ILEG - A Case of Recording Patient Journeys.

In 2019 the Gemeindenotfallsanitäter was introduced in the area of Oldenburg, and scientific monitoring starting 2021 with Inanspruchnahme, Leistungen und Effekte des Gemeindenotfallsanitäters. Since then, it is possible to track patient journeys, starting from the emergency call to the subsequent treatment. This short communication provides an overview of the necessary data-acquisition and dataflow from all participating institutions and its possibilities.

[Care of older patients by community emergency paramedics : Comparison of community-dwellers and nursing home residents].

Background: Emergency departments and emergency services are increasingly burdened by non-emergency patients. A substantial proportion of these is represented by older people. The project "community emergency paramedic" ("Gemeindenotfallsanitäter" [G-NFS]) was initiated to prevent unnecessary use of emergency services.

Cross-sectional study in an out-of-hours primary care centre in northwestern Germany - patient characteristics and the urgency of their treatment.

Background: Due to the increasing number of non-urgent visits to emergency departments, it is becoming increasingly important to also investigate emergency care in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care. The aim of this study was to provide an insight into the care structures of an OOH primary care centre, to evaluate the reasons for encounter (RFE) and to assess the urgency of the treatment from the physicians´ point of view.

Methods: In the summer of 2017, we conducted a cross-sectional study over four weeks in the OOH primary care centre of Oldenburg, a city in Lower Saxony with about 160,000 inhabitants.

IT Infrastructure for Biomedical Research in North-West Germany.

The efficient use of routine data for biomedical research presupposes an IT infrastructure designed for health care facilities. The objective of this study was to analyse which IT infrastructure is used in hospitals and by general practitioners' (GP) practices in the region Oldenburg-Bremen and to examine how well this supports research projects. To this end, IT managers and GPs were interviewed.

[Outpatient emergency treatment of nursing home residents : Analysis of insurance claims data].

Background: Utilization of outpatient emergency services by nursing home residents is increasing; however, out of hours medical care (OOHC) in Germany has not yet been studied.

Objective: In Bremen the used billing codes enabled a comparison between the use of outpatient emergency care in the year before and the year after admission to a nursing home stratified by emergency departments and OOHC.

Material And Methods: In this retrospective cohort study we used insurance claims data of residents in Bremen, who were insured in a large German statutory health insurance (DAK-Gesundheit).