Medical Care Centers in Germany: An Adequate Model to Improve Health Care Delivery in Rural Areas?

Abstract

Sufficient health care delivery is a challenge in rural areas of many industrial nations. Already existing problems in modern societies’ health systems become more severe in rural areas due less favorable conditions for health care providers, shifts in age structures and continuously declining attractiveness of rural practice. In order to maintain high quality care and safety of services, several innovative approaches are taken into consideration on the political and operational level. The following article discusses the suitability of German Medical Care Centers (MCC) to address the particular challenges of sufficient health care in rural areas and summarizes which accompanying measures and further developments are necessary, in order to make MCC an effective tool to improve health care delivery in rural regions.