Health Care Management

Cross-sectoral primary care network in the district of Reutlingen

The project "Cross-sectoral primary care network in the district of Reutlingen" aims to strengthen primary care in the district of Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg). Primary care is the first level of care where patients, families and the community connect with the health system. It thus represents the first element of a continuous care process and covers preventive, curative, nursing, rehabilitative and palliative care.

The project intends to develop an action-guiding concept for a connected and patient-oriented care region in the district of Reutlingen with a particular emphasis on prevention and health promotion, medical rehabilitation, care and digitisation.

Health pilots who are responsible for expanding the primary care network and ensuring the accessibility of inpatient facilities will be part of the care region. Municipally effective self-help and lay help systems in the sense of voluntary work and relatives are also included. Other features of the care region should be:

  • Matching the focus of care to regional needs
  • Multi-professional treatment teams from health, social and other professions
  • Patient-centred, coordinated, continuous, cross-sectoral care
  • Strengthening the patients' self-efficacy in dealing with their illness
  • Involving citizens in prevention and health promotion activities
  • Networking through municipal involvement, for example within the framework of Municipal Health Conferences

The aim is to ensure comprehensive, easily accessible and transparent health care for everyone. The care region is to be financed through a regional budget which covers all care in the defined region. 

In order to achieve the project goals, expertise in the field of health economics and healthcare research will be merged through cooperation with the Technical University of Berlin and the Institute for General Medicine at the University Hospital of Tübingen.

The project is divided into four work packages:

  1. Situation analysis of primary care
  2. Development of a model of new primary care
  3. Conversion of the model into an action-guiding concept for the Reutlingen district - including presentation of a regional budget
  4. Training of health pilots in the primary care sector

The project is accompanied by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Municipal Health Conference in the district of Reutlingen, which has been analysing health care processes in close cooperation with citizens since 2009. This should make it possible to provide high-quality answers to health policy questions in a citizen-oriented manner. 

The project started in spring 2020 and is expected to run until April 2022.