General practices and community care points work hand in hand in the care of multimorbid patients: What are the advantages? - A qualitative study with general practitioners and medical practice assistants

Caring for an increasing number of multimorbid people is a challenge for general practices in Germany. A possible approach to ensure future care could be the cooperation between general practices and community care points, which have so far been a little-known option among general practitioners. The aim of this study was to investigate the benefits or additional burdens that, from the perspective of general practices, a cooperation between general practices and community care points would bring for both the general practitioners themselves and their patients. In the mixed-methods study COMPASS II, general practices were able to refer multimorbid patients with social counselling needs to a community care point. Semi-structured guideline-based telephone interviews were conducted with nine general practitioners and nine medical practice assistants regarding the feasibility of cooperation with the community care points. The interviews were analysed using framework analysis. In the qualitative interviews, the general practitioners and medical practice assistants reported that the community care points helped them save time by relieving them of social counselling tasks. The interviewees felt relieved by knowing that the community care points expertly take care of their patients' social concerns. From the perspective of the interviewees, multimorbid patients experienced changes in their care through the counselling in community care points, such as adjusting the level of care they require. Social counsellors provided patients and their relatives with an overview of the support options available. The majority of the interviewees did not feel that cooperating with the community care point put an additional burden on their patients or on themselves. Cooperation between general practices and community care points has the potential to improve care for multimorbid patients and reduce the workload burden on general practices. Community care points are legally anchored counselling services which general practitioners could increasingly involve in the care of patients with multimorbidity.