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Background: For children and adolescents with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), treatment that is not in adequate conformity with the guidelines can adversely affect both the course of disease and the patients' development. The targeted use of digital patient registries may improve real-life adherence to the recommendations of evidence-based guidelines., Methods: In a cluster-randomized, controlled trial (DRKS00015505), treatment providers for the intervention group (IG) documented the treatment of children and adolescents with IBD in the CEDATA-GPGE patient registry; they received automated feedback on the data they entered and on potential deviations of the documented treatment from recommendations contained in the guidelines (care deficits). Treatments providers for the control group (CG) documented treatments as previously, i.e., only in the patients' charts. At the end of a twelve-month observation period, the data from both groups at baseline and on follow-up were analyzed in an intergroup comparison. The primary endpoint was the number of care deficits at twelve months., Results: 319 patients were recruited from 47 pediatric gas troen tero logical centers in Germany (IG: 21 centers and 160 subjects; CG: 26 centers and 159 subjects). Among the 146 subjects in the IG who were followed up at 12 months, there were an average (mean) of 0.17 care deficits per patient (95% confidence interval [0.10; 0.24]). Among the 134 subjects in the CG who were followed up at 12 months, there were an average (mean) of 0.55 [0.43; 0.66] identified care deficits per patient (p < 0.0001)., Conclusion: Registry-based feedback can help bring treatment and its documentation into better con for - mity with the relevant guidelines and thereby reduce or prevent care deficits in children and adolescents with IBD.

Background: The consequences of economization and staff shortage in the German health care system strongly affect paediatric care structures, especially in rural regions. It is not known how closures of paediatric departments influence patient flows of surrounding hospitals. Here, we investigate the quantitative effects of closure of the paediatric department of a district hospital and the subsequent opening of an alternative inpatient service on the utilisation of inpatient and outpatient care services of the two neighboring hospitals and the emergency services of the region., Methodology: In the observation period from 2015 to 2019, patient-related data from the three hospitals in the study region as well as data from the rescue service were evaluated., Results: In the year after the paediatric department of the district hospital was closed in 2016, the total number of inpatient cases in the region decreased by 33% (2015: n=1,787; 2016: n=1,193) and then decreased by an additional 11% (2019: n=1,005). The number of outpatient cases decreased by further 8% (2015: n=6,250; 2019: n=5,770). In the last observation year, emergency services were used much more frequently than in the year before the closure (2015: n=398; 2019: n=572). This means an increase of 44%., Conclusion: After the closure of the paediatric department, the total number of inpatient cases in the region fell sharply. However, actual gaps in care apparently did not arise. Before closing, the consequences for the surrounding hospitals should be assessed more precisely. Real gaps in care must be counteracted, e. g. through alternative outpatient services., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)