Consistently transparent – medical treatment quality in focus
24.05.2023 18:17
“Hospitals are rightly expected to provide the best possible medical care. With the Quality Medicine Initiative (IQM), we want to ensure and further improve high-quality treatment even with increasing patient numbers and despite a shortage of skilled workers - today and in the future," says Professor Dr. Axel Ekkernkamp, acting chairman of IQM, whose quality assurance system now includes around 500 hospitals in Germany and Switzerland.
In order to achieve continuous improvement of processes, the initiative relies on the transparent publication of so-called routine data that cannot be manipulated. The clinics have now presented their quality data for 2022.
The results are calculated based on the German Inpatient Quality Indicators (G-IQI) and the Swiss Inpatient Quality Indicators (CH-IQI). They enable a comparison with the federal reference value, but without a public ranking of the IQM member hospitals. “Outwardly, the IQM results provide the specialist audience and the general public with transparent and neutral information regarding the quality of medical care. Internally, they are the engine for continuous improvement, for example through peer reviews,” says Prof. Dr. Jörg Martin, 1st Director – public law support group.
For the participating hospitals, the quality results are criteria for conducting peer reviews. The interdisciplinary process, which focuses on collegial exchange, identifies potential for optimization in treatment in the IQM member hospital, which is ultimately recorded in an action plan to continuously improve the quality of medical treatment. In the last 6 months alone, almost 50 peer reviews have been carried out following the pandemic. With these efforts, the member hospitals show that they want and will continue to adhere to the continuous improvement process.
The IQM member hospitals make the results available on their own websites.
Overall results of the IQM member hospitals
List of IQM member hospitals with reference to the respective results