[Healthcare landscape in internal medicine in Germany: A trend analysis over 10 years for the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM)].

Abstract

The aim of the project is to analyse the status of the inpatient and outpatient care landscape with regard to medical staff, care structures and performance developments for internal medicine and its specialities.Various data sources were used, including the German Medical Association, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, the Federal Statistical Office and structured hospital quality reports.According to the German Medical Association, 58000 internists were registered in 2020, 45% (n=26,400) of whom worked in the inpatient sector and 48% (n=28,000) in the outpatient sector. The proportion of female, younger, part-time and salaried employees is increasing. The proportion of internists among all general practitioners rose from around 25% or 25,200 in 2013 to over 30% or 29,300 in 2020.According to the structured quality reports, 34% (n=166000) of the 494000 hospital beds in 2019 were allocated to internal medicine and 33% of these (n= 54500) to the various specialties. The number of beds per population remained almost unchanged from 2010 to 2017, both for internal medicine as a whole and across all specialities.In 2019, a good 7.2 million (36%) of the almost 20 million inpatient cases were treated in internal medicine departments. Of these, 69% or 5.0 million were in general internal medicine with an average length of stay of 6.9 days. In relation to general and specialized internal medicine, number of hospital beds, medical staff and cases differed from region to region.The proportion of younger, female, part-time and salaried doctors in internal medicine is increasing. The development of internal medicine varies regionally, which should be taken into account when reforming the healthcare system.