The planned hospital atlas offers important guidance, but additions are necessary
14.09.2023 13:04
On the occasion of the plans presented on September 13th by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to implement the transparency directory for hospitals within the framework of the Hospital Transparency Act, Ulrike Elsner, Chairwoman of the Association of Replacement Insurance Funds, explains. V. (vdek):
“We support the Federal Minister of Health’s plans to provide insured persons with a transparency directory with comprehensive information about the quality of treatment in a hospital on an online portal. The plan is to provide ongoing, understandable, interactive information about which services are available at which hospital location in Germany (Performance groups) with what frequency and what specialist medical and nursing equipment is provided. In addition, the so-called hospital atlas should contain patient-relevant quality results such as complication rates, mortality rates, etc. The planned division of hospitals is also positive Levels of care (from basic care to maximum care) as a guide for patients when looking for a suitable hospital.
More commitment needed
But there are still some sticking points. For example, it remains incomprehensible why the transparency directory should only publish a small excerpt of the underlying data for quality measurement. What is left out, for example, is whether all quality requirements for the performance groups were actually met or whether the states made use of the planned exceptions to the quality criteria. Another problem is that the hospitals' reports are not checked and it is therefore difficult to verify their plausibility. Overall, expectations of the transparency directory in theory and practice could therefore diverge. So more commitment is needed here.
It would also be important for the transparency directory to make it clear what expertise clinics that are assigned to Level I (primary care providers) have. They are often more suitable for standard procedures than maximum care providers.
The implementation method also remains problematic for us replacement funds. If the BMG acts as the responsible operator of the transparency directory, it should also contribute to the costs, since the IQTIG is a self-governing institute financed by insurance money.”