People with multimorbidity in outpatient care: patient-focused and needs-oriented healthcare management (MamBo) – protocol for a multiperspective evaluation study

BACKGROUND: With demographic change, the number of noncommunicable diseases, chronic diseases and multimorbidity is increasing, and so is the demand for health services. This represents a further challenge for the healthcare system. An adequate and efficient treatment of multimorbid patients requires a well-structured, informed and cross-indicated treatment. Therefore, a new form of coordinated, managed and cross-sectoral care for multimorbid patients - the “MamBo” care model - has been developed. Along with the implementation of MamBo, a process and outcome evaluation will be carried out, which is described in this study protocol. The aim of the study is to evaluate the care model according to its implementation process and effectiveness. METHODS: The MamBo-care model will be evaluated in multi-perspective terms. Thus, a process and outcome evaluation with several data sources will be conducted: (1) Annual focus groups and individual interviews with those involved in the process. (2) Various primary data, including surveys of patients, physicians and practice staff at the time of enrolment and 1 year later to enable pre-post comparison. (3) Claim data from the health insurance of the MamBo population in comparison to a comparative population, formed by the propensity score matching method. (4) Process data of the care management. The analysis of qualitative data will be carried out by content analysis according to Mayring. For the analysis of the quantitative data, multivariate analyses are planned. DISCUSSION: A new form of coordinated care has been introduced to improve intersectoral care of multimorbid patients and reduce the workload on physicians. The effects of the MamBo care model are being investigated for patients, physicians and the cost units. The results will form the basis for the decision whether the care model should be transferred to standard care and what needs to be taken into account for implementation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was retrospectively registered in the German Register for Clinical Studies (DRKS00014047) on June 28, 2019.