Quality assurance for knee endoprostheses: final report published
20.08.2012 16:39
On behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the AQUA Institute developed a quality assurance procedure (QS procedure) for knee endoprosthesis care. The final report written for this was approved by the G-BA plenary session on August 16, 2012 and published on the AQUA website at www.sqg.de.
The procedure presented by the AQUA Institute goes beyond the hospital's existing quality assurance for knee endoprostheses. It covers the almost complete course of treatment for patients before, during and after the operation and takes into account, among other things, the interdisciplinary cooperation and coordination of the various service providers. Also new are patient surveys that are to be carried out at different times. In order to keep the documentation lean, routine data should be used as much as possible.
The final report that has now been approved is an important milestone on the path to cross-sector quality assurance. It is at the discretion of the G-BA to initiate the next implementation steps.
In Germany, around 145,000 knee endoprostheses are inserted for the first time and around 12,500 prosthesis changes are carried out every year. In addition, there are around 9,000 initial implantations of prostheses that only replace part of the joint (unicondylar slide prostheses). These were not previously mandatory in quality assurance.
Further information on the Internet at:
You can find the final report here: