BackgroundInter-professional teamwork is a prominent factor in quality of care and may lead to improved patient safety. Although team members' points of view are highly relevant when trying to improve inpatient procedures, there is a lack of systematic assessment of their perceptions. Therefore, study aims were to explore inter-professional teamwork, safety-related behavior, and patient safety in German hospitals from team members' point of view. Furthermore, we wanted to examine the association between inter-professional teamwork and safety-related behavior as well as the association between inter-professional teamwork and patient safety. MethodsWe used cross-sectional pre-intervention data of a multicenter longitudinal study (German KOMPAS project). We gathered descriptive statistics for sample characteristics and to describe the current state of inter-professional teamwork, safety-related behavior, and patient safety. We used one-way variance analyses to assess differences between groups, and linear regression analyses to examine the association between inter-professional teamwork and the outcomes safety-related behavior, and patient safety. Results326 inpatient care team members participated in the study. Participants perceived a moderate to high level of inter-professional teamwork, and a moderate level of patient safety. Moreover, they reached rather high values in safety-related behavior. Professional group, work experience, and period of employment had an impact on the perceptions of inter-professional teamwork, and patient safety. Higher inter-professional teamwork was associated

ObjectivesTo give an overview over the associations between self-reported health literacy and medication adherence in older adults.DesignA systematic literature review of quantitative studies published in English and German.Data sourcesMEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos and LIVIVO were searched.Eligibility criteriaIncluded studies had to examine the associations between self-reported health literacy and medication adherence in the elderly (samples including ≥66% of ≥60 years old) and had to use a quantitative methodology and had to be written in English or German.Data extraction and synthesisAll studies were screened for inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. A narrative synthesis was applied to analyse all included studies thematically. Quality assessment was conducted using the NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies.ResultsWe found 2313 studies, of which nine publications from eight studies were included in this review. Five studies reported a majority of participants with limited health literacy, one study reported a majority of participants with adequate health literacy, and three publications from two studies only reported mean levels of health literacy. Eight publications from seven studies used self-reports to measure medication adherence, while one study used the medication possession ratio. Overall, six publications from five studies reported significantly positive associations between health literacy and medication adherence while two studies reported positive but non-significant associations between both constructs and one study reported mixed results.ConclusionIn this review, associations between self-reported health literacy and medication adherence are rather consistent, indicating positive associations between both constructs in older adults. However, concepts and measures of health literacy and medication adherence applied in the included studies still show a noteworthy amount of heterogeneity (eg, different use of cutoffs). These results reveal the need for more differentiated research in this area.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019141028.

IntroductionCentralisation defined as the reorganisation of healthcare services into fewer specialised units serving a higher volume of patients is a potential measure for healthcare reforms aiming at reducing costs while improving quality. Research on centralisation of healthcare services is thus essential to inform decision-makers. However, so far studies on centralisation report a variability of outcomes, often neglecting outcomes at the health system level. Therefore, this study aims at developing a core outcome set (COS) for studies on centralisation of hospital procedures, which is intended for use in observational as well as in experimental studies.Methods and analysisWe propose a five-stage study design: (1) systematic review, (2) focus group, (3) interview studies, (4) online survey, (5) Delphi survey. The study will be conducted from March 2022 to November 2023. First, an initial list of outcomes will be identified through a systematic review on reported outcomes in studies on minimum volume regulations. We will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINHAL, EconLIT, PDQ-Evidence for Informed Health Policymaking, Health Systems Evidence, Open Grey and also trial registries. This will be supplemented with relevant outcomes from published studies on centralisation of hospital procedures. Second, we will conduct a focus group with representatives of patient advocacy groups for which minimum volume regulations are currently in effect in Germany or are likely to come into effect to identify outcomes important to patients. Furthermore, two interview studies, one with representatives of the German medical societies and one with representatives of statutory health insurance funds, as well as an online survey with health services researchers will be conducted. In our analyses of the suggested outcomes, we will largely follow the categorisation scheme developed by the Cochrane EPOC group. Finally, a two-round online Delphi survey with all stakeholder groups using predefined score criteria for consensus will be employed to first prioritise outcomes and then agree on the final COS.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB). The final COS will be disseminated to all stakeholders involved and through peer-reviewed publications and conferences.

Clinical practice guidelines include recommendations to optimize patient care. As patients are "experts by experience" for their medical conditions, their involvement in the development of clinical practice guidelines is essential. Accordingly, many organizations worldwide require patient involvement in the development of clinical practice guidelines. However, in 2018 a German study found that patient involvement in the development of German clinical practice guidelines still lagged significantly behind international requirements. This meta research-study is an update on the status of patient involvement in German clinical practice guidelines. It examines whether and how patients have been involved in the development of currently valid German clinical practice guidelines as well as the current status of patient versions of German clinical practice guidelines. Furthermore, this meta-research study investigates in how far German clinical practice guidelines follow the RIGHT Checklist with respect to the reporting of patient involvement. To this aim the German clinical practice guidelines register will be searched for currently valid S3 clinical practice guidelines which will be screened by two independent reviewers. Relevant data on patient involvement will be extracted and analyzed descriptively. The results will be compared to the previous German study.