Legal implications of the interlocking of ambulatory and stationary care
Wienke, A.
Zeitschrift für Arztliche Fortbildung und Qualitatssicherung 97(8-9): 603-606
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 1431-7621 PMID: 14710652 Document Number: 555397
In Germany, ambulatory and stationary care are separated at both a legal and an organisational level. For some time though there have been efforts to make the border between these two sectors of care more permeable. However, the measures that have been implemented in order to achieve this goal such as the forms of integrated care in accordance with sections 140 a et seqq. of the Fifth Book of Social Code (SGB V) have yet failed to meet with the intended success, which is due to a lack of co-operation between the two sectors. One of the reasons is economic: on the one hand, the interlocking of the two sectors of care is supposed to bring about increased and more efficient co-operation between providers of care, on the other hand, though, these terms may easily be reduced to a single outcome, that is being "cheaper". The other is that medical professionals suffer from a legally founded fear of contact resulting from the difficult legal separation of areas of responsibility and liability between ambulatory and stationary care. There are considerable differences between the two sectors in respect of both organisational and clinical issues so that the respective liability parameters are of a different nature and different legal relevance.