Evaluation of the 'Diagnostic Consultation in Nursing Homes through Mobile Geriatric Unit' (DIKOM)

The number of nursing home residents being admitted to hospitals for the evaluation of their complaints is high, even though treatment within the nursing home itself could be possible. Hospital stays for this vulnerable group are particularly prone to complications and are costly. In order to counteract unnecessary hospital admissions, the project is testing on-site diagnostic assessments through a telemedically connected 'Mobile Geriatric Unit' (MGU). This unit is a vehicle equipped with diagnostic tools aligned with those found in an emergency room.

The evaluation of the DIKOM project aims to address the question of whether consultative diagnostic assessments, when conducted directly at the nursing home, reduce the rate of hospital admissions and have a favorable impact on the development of care needs, as well as on treatment and care costs. To answer this question, a health-economic impact evaluation (conducted by the Institute for Applied Health Services Research), a medical evaluation (conducted by Saarland University), and a process evaluation will be carried out.

The iso- institute is responsible for the process evaluation in the project. This involves capturing the conditions, accompanying circumstances, and processes of the intervention to discuss questions of effectiveness within an extended framework. In DIKOM, leitfadengestützte (guideline-based) expert interviews and standardized surveys of managerial staff are used to examine when and how the MGU is deployed in individual care facilities, how communication is structured at the interfaces between care facilities on one hand, and specialized and general practitioners on the other hand, and what can ultimately be (not) achieved. Based on this information, recommendations will be formulated on whether and how this new form of care can be adapted and further developed.