Evaluation of in-hospital treatment with naturopathic methods - The 'Blankenstein model: part I: Patients and therapeutic concepts

Background: In January 1997 the department for naturopathy with 60 beds has been established at the Catholic Hospital St. Elisabeth, Blankenstein, and was taken into consideration in Northrhine-West-phalia's plan of hospital budgets. Aim:The establishment of this department was connected to a scient ific evaluation, which was performed to check the diagnostic and therapeuti c possibilities and limits of naturopathic methods applied within the field of inpatient treatment according to 39 SGB V. Patients and Methods: Beside s sociodemographic surveys, questions about the ranges of indication and re sults of treatments as well as the analysis of the cost-benefit relation we re part of the evaluation. Additionally, a subject of the current check was the delimitation towards means of rehabilitation or towards ambulant treat ments. In order to initiate or to continue an open dialog with other model projects on this field, at first the therapeutical concept of the departmen t was presented in excerpts. Results:The mean age of the patients treated w as 57.3 years. In total, 440 of the 618 patients (71.3%) were capable of ga inful employment, which means they were between 17 and 65 years old. in thr ee fourths of all examined patients their place of residence was in the are as of Essen, Dortmund, and Hagen. Every patient had a therapy time of 4.1 h per day in the hospital. In total, 8.7 medicines per patient were taken, w ith an average quantity of 12.9 single doses per day. 97.3% of the patients had a second diagnosis, and 91.8% of the patients had 3 or more diagnoses. 60% of the patients suffered from rheumatic diseases. In 84.7% of these pa tients the first diagnosis was 'disease of the skeleton and the muscles: Co ncerning the diagnostic means, electrocardiograms and x-ray examinations as well as in-house councils about these means can be named as being characte ristic. By means of patient groups that have been differentiated by the tra cer diagnosis, the corresponding therapy standards are explained. These sta ndards have been worked out with classical naturopathic treatments, especia lly in regard to rheumatic diseases. Discussion:The application of naturopa thic methods within the field of inpatient treatment is especially distingu ished by the regular use of classical naturopathic treatments (especially h ydrotherapy), with a high therapy density. By establishing standardized the rapy concepts, comparisons with the ambulant care of chronically ill patien ts as well as with the results of model projects within the field of rehabi litation are made possible.