[Outpatient hand surgery--possibilities and limitations].

On January 1st 2004, a new contract between the government, health insurance services, and hospitals was inaugurated in Germany. The aim of the contract is to decrease costs for surgical therapies by abolishing or at least minimizing hospitalization of patients. Hand surgery is widely affected by the new contract, since a very large part of surgical therapies for the hand was declared to be compulsory outdoor and another major part to be preferable outdoor. The surgeon may decide whether a patient needs inpatient or outpatient treatment but has to justify his decision. Hospitals and surgical clinics are both allowed to offer outpatient hand surgery and get the same payment under the same regulations. For most hospitals, structural changes will be necessary to offer outpatient surgery without financial loss. In our experience a personal and regular contact between patient and surgeon is most necessary for the best surgical result. Many of the compulsory outpatient operations in hand surgery can be done sufficiently and at high standard. This may not be the case for the second group to be handled not compulsory outdoor. The new contract allows hospitals to offer postoperative care for only 14 days, whereas many specific hand surgical procedures will need the surgeon's control and care for a much longer time. On the other hand, clinics and general practitioners have strict limitations for the prescription of hand therapies. We believe that the quality of hand surgery is highly dependent on sufficient postoperative treatment. If the postoperative care is neglected or restricted, secondary costs such as sick leave will increase.