[Guidelines for consultations regarding incontinence care products]. / Leitlinie Hilfsmittelberatung bei Harninkontinenz.

An investigation of the German consumer organisation "Stiftung Warentest" in 2017 confirmed significant deficiencies in the information, advice and supply of incontinence care products received by urinary incontinence patients. The German Society of Urology (DGU) thereupon drafted and later published guidelines concerning the consultation of patients in the context of incontinence care. Important aspects of the consultation process include the determination of the type of incontinence as well as its severity, clinical examination, and advice regarding possible curative treatments. However, the advice appointment takes centre stage and should ideally be conducted by a qualified person in a separate room granting sufficient privacy and time. Furthermore, repeated supply of a selection of samples for differing degrees and types of incontinence, accommodating the patient's individual preferences and anatomical features, is crucial in order to ensure optimal incontinence care. In the case of commercial health care service providers, transparency relating to the financial implications of e.g. expensive products is key, which is what has been intended by German health insurance providers. The new guidelines concerning urinary incontinence care consultation constitute a step towards the improvement and structuring of processes in the consultation regarding, and the supply of, incontinence care products.

Timing of androgen deprivation monotherapy and combined treatments in castration-sensitive and castration-resistant prostate cancer: a narrative review.

PURPOSE: Standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) can be initiated early at the time of diagnosis in asymptomatic castration-sensitive advanced prostate cancer. This definition has recently been expanded to also include an early combined treatment with standard ADT and new antihormonal drugs. We aimed to present the best available evidence for the timing of initiation of ADT monotherapy and combined treatments in castration-sensitive/-resistant prostate cancer. METHODS: For this narrative review, we searched Cochrane reviews in the Cochrane Library, systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials in MEDLINE, phase III and ongoing trials in ClinicalTrials.gov and screened the reference lists to extract articles of interest. One author screened the references which were finally included after assessing their relevance through discussion with other experts in the field. RESULTS: The identified references were grouped by medication (standard ADT, androgen biosynthesis inhibitor, androgen receptor antagonists or combined therapies) and tumor stage (castration sensitive or resistant). The evidence was narratively summarized and discussed in the context of the current therapeutic landscape. CONCLUSIONS: Early standard ADT can reduce symptoms of disease progression and may extend progression-free and overall survival. The patient should be well informed about the higher rates of treatment-related side effects. Deferring standard ADT might be indicated only for well-informed or unfit patients. Early standard ADT is increasingly combined with new antihormonal drugs in castration-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer to gain additional survival and quality of life benefits. Combined treatment at the time of development of castration-resistant disease is well established.

[Presurgical assessments]. / Assessments vor Operationen.

For the estimation of perioperative risks and mortality in the context of radical urological tumor surgery in elderly patients, the guidelines meanwhile require the use of geriatric assessments. The aim of this work is therefore to explain frequently used geriatric assessments and to give an overview of their predictive significance in radical urological tumor surgery. Comprehensive geriatric assessments provide a good description of the patient's state of health, but are hardly feasible in clinical routine due to their complexity. It is more reasonable to use screening tools with subsequent targeted examination of high-risk patients. Special tools allow the standardized assessment of functional status, mobility, cognition, mood, nutrition, frailty, comorbidities and polypharmacy and have different prognostic significance. Evidence on the predictive value of assessments prior to radical urological tumor surgery is mainly described for the systematic classification of comorbidities. In cystectomy, the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score allow an estimation of the risk of complications and mortality. The focus of assessments prior to prostatectomy is to identify patients with sufficient life expectancy to benefit from radical surgery. CCI and ASA scores as well as the Eastern Co-operative Oncology Group (ECOG) score can help to assess the risk of perioperative complications in kidney tumor surgery.

[Inpatient therapy of urinary stones in Germany: development of the G-DRG system]. / Harnsteintherapie im stationären Bereich in Deutschland : Entwicklung des G-DRG-Systems.

BACKGROUND: The therapy of urinary stones in Germany is mostly a domain of hospitals even now. With the introduction of the German diagnosis-related groups (G-DRG) system in the years 2003/2004 an attempt was made to realize an ever-increasing fair representation and remuneration of treatment costs. Simultaneously, a declared target was to transfer all forms of treatment which did not necessitate hospital admission to the outpatient department. RESULTS: Analysis of the D-DRG data on running invoicing from all German hospitals from 2004/2005 to 2012/2013 showed an increase in case numbers of around 12% with a parallel increase in the volume of revenues of around 37%. A special feature was a reduction in the proportion of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWL) as inpatient treatment with a parallel increase in the proportion of ureteroscopic and percutaneous interventions.

[Development of the 2014 G-DRG system. Departure from coding of secondary diagnoses?]. / Entwicklung des G-DRG-Systems 2014. Abkehr von der Kodierung der Nebendiagnosen?

The objective of the German DRG (diagnosis-related groups) system is to adequately reimburse hospital costs using flat rate payments. The goal is to thereby achieve the most adequate representation of hospital costs in flat rate payments. The DRG for 2014 is based on the actual number of cases treated and the costs determined from 2012. For 2014, the current changes of the DRG system for the specialty urology concerning the coding and recording of secondary diagnoses are presented and discussed.

[How can the coding quality in the DRG system be determined?]. / Wie kontrolliert man die Kodierqualität im DRG-System?

The permanent adjustments ​​since 2003 to the G-DRG system have made the system even less understandable, so that many users have the feeling of feeding data into a black box which gives them a result without them being able to actively use the system itself. While chief physicians, senior physicians, and nursing managers are responsible to management for the results of the billing, they are in most cases not involved in the steps of DRG coding and billing. From this situation, a common question arises: "How well does my department code?" This uncertainty is exploited by many commercial vendors, who offer a wide variety of approaches for DRG optimization. The goal of this work is to provide advice as to how coding quality can be determined.