Personalized, interdisciplinary patient pathway for cross-sector care of multimorbid patients (eliPfad trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background

Multimorbid and frail elderly patients often carry a high burden of treatment. Hospitalization due to the onset of an acute illness can disrupt the fragile balance, resulting in further readmissions after hospital discharge. Current models of care in Germany do not meet the needs of this patient group. Rather lack of coordination and integration of care combined with a lack of interdisciplinary approaches result in fragmented and inadequate care and increase the burden of treatment even more.

Methods

eliPfad is a randomized controlled trial conducted in 6 hospitals in Germany. Multimorbid elderly patients aged 55 or older are randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group receive the eliPfad intervention additional to standard care. The core components of eliPfad are:

Early assessment of patients’ individual treatment burden and support through a specially trained case manager

Involvement of the patient’s general practitioner (GP) right from the beginning of the hospital stay

Preparation of an individual, cross-sectoral treatment plan through the interdisciplinary hospital team with the involvement of the patient’s GP

Establishment of a cross-sectoral electronic patient record (e-ePA) for documentation and cross-sectoral exchange

Support/Promote patient adherence

Tailored early rehabilitation during the hospital stay, which is continued at home

Close-tele-monitoring of medically meaningful vital parameters through the use of tablets, digital devices, and personal contacts in the home environment

The intervention period begins in the hospital and continues 6 weeks after discharge. Patients in the control group will be treated according to standard clinical care and discharged according to current discharge management. The primary aim is the prevention/reduction of readmissions in the first 6 months after discharge. In addition, the impact on health-related quality of life, the burden of treatment, survival, self-management, medication prescription, health literacy, patient-centered care, cost-effectiveness, and process evaluation will be examined. Nine hundred forty-eight patients will be randomized 1:1 to intervention and control group.

Discussion

If eliPfad leads to fewer readmissions, proves (cost-)effective, and lowers the treatment burden, it should be introduced as a new standard of care in the German healthcare system.

Trial registration

The trial was registered in the German Clinical Trials Registry (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien (DRKS)) on 08/14/2023 under the ID DRKS00031500.