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  • Holger Pfaff
Holger Pfaff

Holger Pfaff
University of Cologne | UOC · Institute of Medical Sociology, Health Services Research, and Rehabilitation Science (IMVR)

Prof. Dr.

About

743
Publications
164,834
Reads
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8,620
Citations
Introduction
Health services research Quality development Evaluation Work and Health Health promotion and prevention
Additional affiliations
October 1983 - September 1986
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Position
  • Research Assistant
October 2009 - present
Centrum für Integrierte Onkologie
Centrum für Integrierte Onkologie
Position
  • Member
October 2009 - present
University of Cologne
Position
  • Managing Director

Publications

Publications (743)
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Cesarean deliveries account for approximately one-third of all births in Germany, prompting ongoing discussions on cesarean section rates and their connection to medical staffing and birth volume. In Germany, the majority of departments integrate obstetric and gynecological care within a single department. Methods The analysis utilize...
Book
Prävention vor Kuration ist ein schon lange bekanntes Prinzip. Mit der Gießkanne angewendet werden aber Chancen verschenkt, dabei kann Prävention doch effektiver und nachhaltiger wirken. Hierfür spielen bspw. individuelle Risikofaktoren genauso wie Fragen des persönlichen Verhaltens und der zugehörigen gesundheitsförderlichen Lebens- und Arbeitsver...
Article
Full-text available
Background Guidelines recommend the identification of potential mental and/or cognitive disorders (MCD) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). However, compliance with these guidelines appears to be lacking in primary care. A minimal invasive intervention was tailored with experts for the primary care setting to increase the identification...
Article
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified pressure on healthcare organizations (HCOs), particularly long-term care organizations (LTCOs. An HCO’s resilience is closely linked to its proactive ability to address and manage both novel and persistent stressors. This proactive approach, termed ‘preventive resilience,’ involves preemptively avert...
Article
Full-text available
Background The European healthcare system is reliant on its digital transformation to deal with challenges like rising expenditures or workforce shortage. The digital transformation is inevitably accompanied by the implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) and the ongoing adaptation of existing ones. Systematic reviews indicate that this p...
Article
Background Although online health communities are acknowledged for their role in bridging the supply-demand gap in mental health services, the client decision-making process in these environments remains underexplored. Objective This study aimed to explore the impact of different signals presented on psychological counselors’ home pages on clients...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sense of coherence (SoC), a key concept in the theory of salutogenesis, influences the pathway to promote or maintain health. Utilising psycho-oncological care (PC) can be allocated to the dimension of ‘tension management’ within this theo-ry. We aimed to evaluate tension management and SoC in the context of PC by analysing whether PC co...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The European health data space promises an efficient environment for research and policy-making. However, this data space is dependent on high data quality. The implementation of electronic medical record systems has a positive impact on data quality, but improvements are not consistent across empirical studies. This study aims to analyze d...
Article
Full-text available
Aim In the field of healthcare, the paramount concern is the safety of patients. Demographic and socioeconomic factors that can influence patient safety are often overlooked in the context of clinical protocols, which receive considerable attention. The objective of this review was to examine the relationship between demographic and socioeconomic v...
Article
A major function of patient-physician-communication is building a trustful relationship and a therapeutic alliance between patient and physician. However, building trustful relationships to patients is subject to ambivalences. There are role expectations including affective neutrality, that stand in contrast to this function. Moreover, translation...
Article
Full-text available
Background Improving the quality of care relies on understanding patients' perceptions and expectations based on their experiences. The study aimed to determine the gaps between patients’ perceived value and expected value, and to identify critical areas for outpatient service improvement. Method This cross-sectional study was conducted in China f...
Article
Full-text available
There is disparity in the healthcare sector between the extent of innovation in medical products (e. g., drugs) and healthcare structures. The reason is not a lack of ideas, concepts, or (quasi-) experimental studies on structural innovations. Instead, we argue that the slow implementation of structural innovations has created this disparity partly...
Article
Full-text available
Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Jüngste Analysen zeigen, dass Versorgungsorganisationen in der Versorgungsforschung in Deutschland häufig in erster Linie als Studiensetting betrachtet werden, ohne deren komplexen organisationalen Charakter in vollem Umfang zu berücksichtigen, weder theoretisch noch methodisch. Daher wurde eine Initiative gestartet, um...
Article
Full-text available
Background German hospitals are legally obliged to implement digital patient portals within the next years. Systematic reviews show that the use of patient portals may be associated with improved patient-centeredness and workflows. However, mandatory digital healthcare innovations are sometimes not used by the target group as planned or even comple...
Article
Full-text available
Background Health Services Research (HSR) is a growing field in Germany, in which Organisational Health Services Research (OHSR) has emerged as a subfield. The aim of this scoping review was to provide an overview of the field of OHSR within HSR in Germany and to map systematically original contributions by describing the organisational setting, th...
Article
Full-text available
Whilst policymaking will always remain a highly political process, especially amidst crises, evidence-based pandemic management can benefit from adopting a socioecological perspective that integrates multi- and trans-disciplinary insights: from biology, biomedicine, mathematics, statistics, social and behavioural sciences, as well as the perspectiv...
Article
Full-text available
Background Coronary heart disease (CHD) is often associated with mental disorders (MDs). Comorbid MDs reduce the quality of life and increase cardiac morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, there is little and inconsistent research on the management of MDs in CHD patients. To bridge this gap, this study aims to gain insight into the long-term course...
Article
Full-text available
Background Increased working from home has imposed new challenges on public service employees, while also granting opportunities for job crafting. Grounding on the Job Demands-Resources model and Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources theory this exploratory research aims to investigate the work-nonwork balance of employees one and a half years after...
Article
Full-text available
Background Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT), an alternative to inpatient intravenous antibiotic therapy, has shown benefits in international studies such as increased patient satisfaction. Because OPAT has been used only sporadically in Germany so far, no structured results on patients’ experiences and concerns regarding OPAT have...
Article
Volltext: https://www.wido.de/publikationen-produkte/zeitschriften/ggw-gesundheit-gesellschaft-wissenschaft/ausgabe-2-2024/ Eine der zentralen Zukunftsaufgaben von Betrieben ist die Umsetzung wirksamer und nachhaltiger Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Anspruch und Wirklichkeit klaffen jedoch mitunter so weit auseinander, dass man von einer Prä...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose This study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the coping processes of breast cancer survivors (BCSs) during medical and occupational rehabilitation after acute treatment. Methods This study is part of the mixed-methods Breast Cancer Patients’ Return to Work study conducted in Germany. Data were collected through semistructured intervi...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Although online health communities are acknowledged for their role in bridging the supply-demand gap in mental health services, the client decision-making process in these environments remains underexplored. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore the impact of different signals presented on psychological counselors’ home pages on clients...
Article
Full-text available
Background Electronic medical records (EMR) are considered a key component of the health care system’s digital transformation. The implementation of an EMR promises various improvements, for example, in the availability of information, coordination of care, or patient safety, and is required for big data analytics. To ensure those possibilities, th...
Chapter
This volume, dedicated to Frank Schulz-Nieswandt's appointment as Professor Emeritus, contains short original contributions from the fields of social policy and cooperative studies. The articles highlight theoretical and contemporary issues. In their diversity, the topics cover Frank Schulz-Nieswandt's research interests over the past decades and c...
Chapter
Der Berufseinstieg ist eine bedeutende und ereignisreiche Lebensphase für junge Menschen, die mit vielen neuen Erfahrungen und Herausforderungen verbunden ist. Unternehmen stehen ihrerseits vor der Herausforderung, die jungen Menschen als Beschäftigte für sich zu gewinnen, zu binden und ihre Gesundheit und Arbeitsfähigkeit zu erhalten. Dafür ist Wi...
Book
Die Arbeitswelt wandelt sich. Nicht nur Arbeitsinhalte und Arbeitsorganisation verändern sich stark durch den Einsatz digitaler Technik. Auch der Arbeitsmarkt mit seinen Beschäftigten wird umgeformt durch junge Beschäftigte, die gerade erst ins Berufsleben eingetreten sind. Steigender Fachkräftemangel in diversen Branchen bewirkt dabei eine zunehme...
Article
Objective This study examines the association between irritation and demands of long-term care managers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of workplace health promotion (WHP). Methods Findings were derived from an online survey investigating long-term care managers as part of the employees in the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 207). Data analyses...
Article
Full-text available
Background The German healthcare system is still poorly digitized. With the Hospital Future Act, the government now mandates hospitals to implement an institutional electronic medical record (EMR). While multiple benefits are described for its adoption, knowledge on its impact on actual documentation is lacking. However, a documentation that is of...
Article
Full-text available
Background Health and safety, especially quality of care and patient safety, are central concerns in healthcare. In the past, researchers concentrated on special measures to promote safety. Fewer studies focused on general prerequisites of safety management. Drawing on Parson's adaptation (A), goal attainment (G), integration (I), and latent patter...
Article
Full-text available
Background After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees in Europe increasingly worked from home. In the German public sector, many employees experienced working from home for the first time. Concurrently, employees could use job crafting activities to alter job demands and resources while working from home. This exploratory case study aim...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives The rate of outpatient therapeutic curettage is lower in Germany than in other countries, although there are no differences in patient safety between outpatient and inpatient management. In this context, outpatient surgery is economically advantageous and efficient. This study aims to identify organisational and regional factors that det...
Article
Full-text available
Background Guideline-compliant provision of psycho-oncological (PO) care is still challenging in Germany. Hence, a new care programme, called integrated cross-sectoral psycho-oncology (isPO), was implemented to improve the integration of needs-oriented PO care. Quality of care (QoC) was externally evaluated from the patient’s perspective. We aim to...
Article
Full-text available
Background: To reduce their decisional uncertainty, health policy decision-makers rely more often on experts or their intuition than on evidence-based knowledge, especially in times of urgency. However, this practice is unacceptable from an evidence-based medicine (EbM) perspective. Therefore, in fast-changing and complex situations, we need an ap...
Article
Full-text available
Background Against the backdrop of demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers, employees’ psychological wellbeing is of special interest for employers. In previous studies, individual health literacy has already been positively associated with psychological wellbeing. However, in order to improve health literacy, it is essential to take...
Article
Full-text available
Background The adoption of digital health technologies can improve the quality of care for polypharmacy patients, if the underlying complex implementation mechanisms are better understood. Context effects play a critical role in relation to implementation mechanisms. In primary care research, evidence on the effects of context in the adoption of di...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose One-to-one peer supporters called isPO onco-guides (isPO OGs) are an integral part of the new German psycho-oncological form of care ‘integrated, cross-sectoral Psycho-Oncology’ (isPO), additionally to professional care. The isPO OGs are cancer survivors with experiential knowledge, offering information on local support services and answeri...
Article
Full-text available
Mental and cognitive disorders (MCD) negatively affect the incidence and prognosis of coronary heart disease (CHD). Medical guidelines recommend the appropriate management of comorbid MCD in patients with CHD, yet there is evidence that the implementation in primary care is not always adequate. We present the protocol for a pilot study that aims to...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Mindfulness-based interventions have gained more importance in workplace health promotion due to increased psychological distress in the digital era. Although managers in the information communication technology sector (ICT)-sector are at risk for lower mental health, few studies have evaluated the effects of workplace mindfulness trai...
Article
Full-text available
Value-based healthcare (VBC) represents one strategy to meet growing challenges in healthcare systems. To date, VBC is not implemented broadly in the German healthcare system. A Delphi survey was conducted to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on the relevance and feasibility of actions and practices related to the implementation of VBC in the Germ...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Electronic medical records (EMR) are considered a key component of the health care systems digital transformation. The implementation of an EMR promises various improvements e.g. in the availability of information, coordination of care, or patient safety and is required for big data analytics. To ensure those possibilities of an EMR, the...
Poster
Achtsamkeitsbasierte Interventionen haben in der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung aufgrund der zunehmenden psychischen Belastung im digitalen Zeitalter an Bedeutung gewonnen. Obwohl Führungskräfte eine hohe Arbeitsbelastung aufweisen und das Risiko für Angst- und depressive Symptome besteht, ist die Untersuchung des Themas Achtsamkeit in Manageme...
Chapter
The second, updated and expanded edition of the handbook provides an overview of knowledge about age and aging in "Western" societies at the beginning of the 21st century that is equally suitable for research and study. The focus is on relevant contributions from the social and behavioral sciences and their approach to selected aspects of age(ing)....
Article
Full-text available
Managers play a key role in realizing a humane organization of work. Transformational leadership aims to identify and examine leadership behaviors that strengthen employees’ awareness of the importance and values of task outcomes by articulating a vision for the future, providing a realistic action plan, and giving individualized support. Previous...
Article
Full-text available
(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the working environment in Europe in March 2020, leading to an increase in working from home. In the German public sector, many employees experienced working from home for the first time. Despite the impact on employees’ daily working life, we know little about employees’ resources, demands and health w...
Article
Full-text available
Zusammenfassung Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, Empfehlungen für ein Kerncurriculum für Masterstudiengänge der Versorgungsforschung zu erarbeiten. Hierzu wurde im ersten Schritt eine standardisierte Online-Befragung von Hochschullehrenden durchgeführt. Im zweiten Schritt wurden die Modulhandbücher der existierenden Studiengänge in Bezug auf ih...
Article
Zusammenfassung Menschen mit Behinderung finden im Hinblick auf ihre individuellen Bedürfnisse bislang wenig Berücksichtigung in der Gesundheitsversorgung. Die Studie erhebt die Innenperspektive von Brustkrebspatientinnen mit einer vorbestehenden Behinderung in Bezug auf Bedarfe und Barrieren in der onkologischen Versorgung. Hierzu wurden qualitati...
Chapter
Die Belastungssituation der Pflegekräfte in Deutschland ist seit langem ein Thema und wurde insbesondere durch die Corona-Pandemie vollends in das Bewusstsein der Öffentlichkeit gerückt. Einige Beobachter:innen der Situation vertreten die Meinung, dass die Belastungssituation während Corona nur die Steigerung des vorhandenen „ganz normalen Wahnsi...
Book
Nicht erst seit der Corona-Pandemie ist die Pflege ins Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit gerückt: Schon seit Jahren ist bekannt, dass in der Pflege hohe Belastungen genauso wie ein Mangel an professionellen Nachwuchskräften herrschen. In Politik und Praxis wurden deshalb viele (konzertierte) Aktionen, Unterstützungsprogramme und Gesundheitsprojekte für di...
Book
Nicht erst seit der Coronavirus-Pandemie ist die Pflege ins Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit gerückt; schon seit Jahren ist bekannt, dass in der Pflege hohe Belastungen genauso wie ein Mangel an professionellen Nachwuchskräften herrschen. In Politik und Praxis wurden deshalb viele (konzertierte) Aktionen, Unterstützungsprogramme und Gesundheitsprojekte f...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) means intravenous administration of antibiotics outside the hospital. The antibiotics are administered at the patient’s home. The advantages are the shortening of the inpatient stay, which means that patients can remain in their familiar environment, the reduction of nosocomial infecti...
Article
Full-text available
Background General practitioners (GPs) are important providers of palliative home care (PHC). To deliver adequate palliative care, cooperation with specialised PHC teams is necessary. Specialised PHC is a type of care for severely ill patients by specialised providers. Little is known about the involvement of German GPs in specialised PHC. Objecti...
Article
Full-text available
Due to demographic change, the number of patients in palliative care (PC) is increasing. General Practitioners (GPs) are important PC providers who often have known their patients for a long time. PC can be demanding for GPs. However, there are few studies on the job stress factors of GPs performing PC and the potential influence of their PC traini...
Data
Factsheet zu Ergebnissen qualitativer Homeoffice Studie im öffentlichen Dienst
Chapter
Die Schaffung einer nachhaltigen und gesundheitsförderlichen Welt stellt eine der großen Herausforderungen moderner Gesellschaften dar. Die Bewältigung dieser Herausforderungen setzt voraus, dass sowohl Individuen als auch Unternehmen, Verwaltungen und Vereine ihrer Verantwortung nachkommen. In unserem Beitrag gehen wir davon aus, dass viele Nachha...
Presentation
Tagungsband: https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/conferencepdf/088251/10.1055/s-00000022.pdf Einleitung: Da Führungskräfte in einer schnelllebigen Arbeitswelt häufig mit hohen Arbeitsanforderungen und Stress konfrontiert sind, stellen sie eine wich- tige Zielgruppe von Maßnahmen der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung (BGF- Maßnahmen)...
Article
Full-text available
Background The Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) was developed to assess leadership behavior with regard to being proactive, knowledgeable, supportive, or perseverant in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs). As part of a study on the implementation of a digitally supported polypharmacy management application in primary care, the origina...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The aim of the study is to examine differences in hospital care between patients with cancer and non-cancer conditions in their dying phase, perceived by bereaved relatives. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional post-bereavement survey, with the total population of 351 deceased, 91 cancer patients and 46 non-cancer patients, who sp...
Chapter
Dieses Kapitel stellt die vergangenen und gegenwärtigen Beiträge der Medizinsoziologie zur Versorgungsforschung in den Mittelpunkt und gibt einen Ausblick auf die Herausforderungen, die vor der medizinsoziologischen Versorgungsforschung liegen. Das Kapitel stellt insbesondere die moderne Versorgungsforschung in die Tradition der Medizinsoziologie u...
Article
Full-text available
The major impact on healthcare through the ongoing digital transformation and new technologies results in opportunities for improving quality of care. Electronic patient records (EPR) are a substantial part in this transformation, even though their influence on documentation remains often unclear. This review aims to answer the question of which ef...
Presentation
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the working environment in Europe in March 2020 leading to an increase of working from home. In the German public sector many employees experienced working from home for the first time. Despite the impact on employees’ daily working life, we know little about employees’ coping strategies and health while wo...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The extent of variation in urinary and sexual functional outcomes after radical prostatectomy (RPE) between prostate cancer (PC) operating sites remains unknown. Therefore, this analysis aims to compare casemix-adjusted functional outcomes (EPIC-26 scores incontinence, irritative/obstructive function and sexual function) between operating s...
Article
Background: As individuals with thalidomide embryopathy now reaching their 60's they undergo long-term sequelae of their prenatal damage and experience a wide range of secondary health problems, in particular chronic musculoskeletal pain, movement restrictions, and mental disorders. These health problems are having a negative impact on their life...
Poster
Full-text available
Patient-centred care in the last year of life: Using co-design to develop a two-sided trigger question-based intervention in acute hospitals
Article
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Up to 50% of unsuccessful implementations of organizational change are due to a lack of organizational readiness for change (ORC). This qualitative study aims to investigate the experiences of occupational physicians (OPs) and staff of test and training centers (ETTCs) with team effectiveness in the context of ORC. The change setting is the impleme...
Article
Full-text available
Background Hospitals are globally an important place of care for dying people and the most frequent place of death in Germany (47%), but at the same time, the least preferred one – for both patients and their relatives. Important indicators and outcome variables indexing quality of care in the dying phase are available, and various proposals to ach...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: To validate the patient-reported measure of Social Support Perceived by Patients Scale-Nurses (SuPP-N). Design/setting: A secondary data analysis based on a cross-sectional breast cancer patient survey in 83 German hospitals. Patients were asked to give written informed consent before they were discharged. If they agreed to participa...