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Which hospital is best for me?

What hospital is for me the best?

DGCH welcomes further development of quality reports for clinics

Berlin - In search of a suitable hospital patients from
this fall is a better source of information: The
"Quality Report 2007" is the first time data on the quality of
medical care in some 1,500 hospitals in Germany publish. Patients
allows the report to inform themselves about, for example, which performs what operation
clinic as often and with what results. The
increases transparency and thus the autonomy of the patient,
what the German Society of Surgery (DGCH) welcome.

The need for information about the quality of medical services is
size in patients. to obtain reliable information, but
is still difficult. Regionally there are - on a voluntary basis and with
of different quality - internal medical quality data, such as
in Hamburg, Berlin and the Ruhr. The quality reports, however, which must publish
clinics since 2005 every two years, previously in
primarily a collection of beds, staff and case numbers or
of equipment and therapeutic Equipment. Information on the quality of the services are
is still barely mentioned.

The quality report 2007 now - initially for a selection of
services - open data to allow a direct assessment of the treatment
. The ten areas of care
considered include the use of pacemakers, the removal of the gall bladder
, hip and knee prostheses or carotid artery surgery.
For each intervention so-called quality indicators
established which allow conclusions about the success of treatment. Sun
is held if and how often, for example, after a knee joint replacement
had unplanned follow-up operations, whether infection occurred in the operating suite
or how the joint mobility was at discharge. The data are from the
nationwide raised external quality assurance.
Clinic Internal results must now complete and in an understandable form for patients
be published. "This is the
strengthened autonomy of the patient and allows him a partnership
decision making," says Professor Dr. Hartwig Bauer, Secretary General of the
DGCH. "For hospitals, the surgery and the surgical
power to a" brand "with which it also "Consists

One of the biggest challenges is to avoid a so-called
risk adjustment of distorting the data," can promote
. The
successful treatment at a clinic in a service area is always
depending on their treatment profile, "explained Professor Bauer. clinics,
would in many difficult cases would get treated, eventually
other results than those in which only mild cases were treated
. "We must ensure that clinics do not dispense with a complicated and difficult
patient treatments to their statistics improve
" said Bauer.

that indeed the patient is a need for reliable information
, confirmed in a recent survey among 2,000
health insurance. This showed that patients rely mainly on the choice of a
hospital on three sources of information. The strongest demand
was still the family doctor's recommendation and most
importance is attached. The Internet with the quality reports will
for personal recommendations by patients, relatives and friends
third. Among the most important selection criteria therefore included the good
reputation of a hospital and the case number. The clinics are
their quality reports in its new form by 30 November 2007
publish.

Source: "Information needs and sources of information when choosing a
Hospital (Health Economics and Quality Management 2007; 12:
113-120 Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart.)