TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring the status of and demand for palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany

T2 - a protocol for a mixed-methods study

AU - Herbst, Franziska A.

AU - Stiel, Stephanie

AU - Damm, Kathrin

AU - de Jong, Lea

AU - Stahmeyer, Jona T.

AU - Schneider, Nils

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the readiness of the German Association for Palliative Medicine and the German Hospice and Palliative Care Association to place calls for knowledge about established and developing palliative day-care clinics and day-hospices in their newsletters. Further thanks are due to the individuals who responded to this call. The authors also acknowledge Valerie Appleby?s excellent editorial scrutiny of the language of the present study protocol.

PY - 2021/6/24

Y1 - 2021/6/24

N2 - Background: To date, the establishment and development of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany have been completely unsystematic. Research is needed to gain insight into these services and to ensure their accessibility and quality. Accordingly, the ABPATITE research project aims at: (1) identifying the characteristics of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany, (2) determining demand and preferences for these services, and (3) proposing recommendations (with expert agreement) for the needs-based establishment and development of these services. Methods: The research is a multi-perspective, prospective, observational study following a mixed-methods approach across three study phases. In phase 1a, qualitative expert interviews will be conducted to capture the facility-related characteristics of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany; the results will feed into a questionnaire sent to all such institutions identified nationwide. In phase 1b, a questionnaire will be sent to local statutory health insurance providers, to gain insight into their contracts and accounting and remuneration models. In phase 2a, a service preference survey will be conducted with patients and family caregivers. In phase 2b, semi-structured interviews with management staff will explore the factors that promote and hinder the provision of service. In phase 2c, the external perspective will be surveyed via focus groups with local actors involved in hospice and palliative care. In phase 3a, focus groups with representatives from relevant areas will be conducted to develop recommendations. Finally, in phase 3b, recommendations will be agreed upon through a Delphi survey. Discussion: The empirically developed recommendations should enable the establishment and development of day hospices and palliative day-care clinics in Germany to be better managed, more oriented to actual demand, and more effectively integrated into wider health care services. Importantly, the findings are expected to optimize the overall development of hospice and palliative care services. Trial registration:: The study was prospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien) (Registration N° DRKS00021446; date of registration: April 20, 2020). The study is searchable under the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal of the World Health Organization, under the German Clinical Trials Register number.

AB - Background: To date, the establishment and development of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany have been completely unsystematic. Research is needed to gain insight into these services and to ensure their accessibility and quality. Accordingly, the ABPATITE research project aims at: (1) identifying the characteristics of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany, (2) determining demand and preferences for these services, and (3) proposing recommendations (with expert agreement) for the needs-based establishment and development of these services. Methods: The research is a multi-perspective, prospective, observational study following a mixed-methods approach across three study phases. In phase 1a, qualitative expert interviews will be conducted to capture the facility-related characteristics of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany; the results will feed into a questionnaire sent to all such institutions identified nationwide. In phase 1b, a questionnaire will be sent to local statutory health insurance providers, to gain insight into their contracts and accounting and remuneration models. In phase 2a, a service preference survey will be conducted with patients and family caregivers. In phase 2b, semi-structured interviews with management staff will explore the factors that promote and hinder the provision of service. In phase 2c, the external perspective will be surveyed via focus groups with local actors involved in hospice and palliative care. In phase 3a, focus groups with representatives from relevant areas will be conducted to develop recommendations. Finally, in phase 3b, recommendations will be agreed upon through a Delphi survey. Discussion: The empirically developed recommendations should enable the establishment and development of day hospices and palliative day-care clinics in Germany to be better managed, more oriented to actual demand, and more effectively integrated into wider health care services. Importantly, the findings are expected to optimize the overall development of hospice and palliative care services. Trial registration:: The study was prospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien) (Registration N° DRKS00021446; date of registration: April 20, 2020). The study is searchable under the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal of the World Health Organization, under the German Clinical Trials Register number.

KW - adult day-care centers

KW - day hospice

KW - day-care, medical

KW - end of life care

KW - health care planning

KW - hospice care

KW - palliative care

KW - palliative day-care clinic

KW - patient preference

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108913812&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s12904-021-00792-5

DO - 10.1186/s12904-021-00792-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 34167534

AN - SCOPUS:85108913812

VL - 20

JO - BMC palliative care

JF - BMC palliative care

SN - 1472-684X

IS - 1

M1 - 94

ER -