Federal Cabinet passes Hospital Transparency Act

13.09.2023 16:54

Today, September 13th, the cabinet approved the draft of a “law to promote the quality of inpatient care through transparency” (Hospital Transparency Act). The law creates the basis for the publication of an interactive hospital atlas on the Internet, which clearly shows which clinic offers which services and with what quality.

Federal Health Minister Prof. Karl Lauterbach said: “The Hospital Transparency Act is an important part of our hospital reform. Patients have a right to know what clinics are doing. With the interactive hospital atlas, we make the quality of hospitals more transparent and thus strengthen patients' individual decisions.

More transparency is overdue and will help hospitals and patients alike. Everywhere in Germany, nurses and doctors do a fantastic job. However, not everyone can do everything. Specialization saves lives. In this way, we ensure a high level of quality in inpatient care in Germany.”

The Hospital Transparency Act obliges hospitals to provide the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) with the necessary information. The InEK supplies the data and evaluations and the Institute for Quality and Transparency in Healthcare (QITIG) prepares the data for the directory.

The directory is scheduled to be published by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on April 1, 2024.

The transparency directory is intended to provide the population with this information

• Case numbers of services (differentiated into 65 service groups),
• available medical and nursing staff, / the staffing in relation to the scope of services,
•  Complication rates for selected procedures,
•  Assignment of individual hospital locations to levels of care.

The publication is clear, generally understandable, interactive and is continuously updated. In the future, further data can be included in the transparency directory. The publication by the BMG has no impact on the federal states' hospital planning or hospital remuneration. The performance groups are named exclusively for publication in the Transparency Act.