Trans-sectoral patient pathways in urgent and emergency care (TRANSPARENT study): protocol for a prospective, mixed-methods study in Germany.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Urgent and emergency care in Germany is delivered across multiple, loosely connected sectors. In the absence of coherent, time-resolved data on patient movements between emergency medical services (EMS), out-of-hours ambulatory care, emergency departments (EDs) and inpatient care, inefficiencies and coordination gaps remain difficult to quantify. A process-centric, trans-sectoral analysis is required to characterise real-world patient pathways and identify actionable levers for improvement. The study aims to reconstruct, model and analyse patient pathways for urgent health complaints across all relevant sectors of the healthcare system in a German model region.

Methods and analysis

We will employ a mixed-methods observational study design. Routine data from EMS,

SUBMITTER: Bienzeisler J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12911710 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature