2023-10-20 04:03:28
A state online atlas will soon provide information about the services and quality of treatment in hospitals throughout Germany. The Bundestag passed a corresponding law from the traffic light coalition on Thursday evening. The CDU/CSU, AfD and the Left voted against it. The new “transparency directory” is scheduled to start in May 2024 and will be an interactive portal that will provide understandable information about what is available at 1,700 clinic locations nationwide. Specifically, it should be clear which hospital offers which services.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said that although it is known that there are big differences in the quality of hospitals, people are often left alone when choosing a clinic. “People don’t have a good basis on which to make this decision. We want to change that.” With the information from the transparency directory, “we are giving people, for the first time, a tool to choose the right clinic for themselves and their relatives and for their friends, smarter and better informed.”
Criticism from the CSU
The CSU health politician Stephan Pilsinger, however, considered the new instrument to be unnecessary. “Things that the world doesn’t need – this law is nothing more and nothing less.” The information on choosing a hospital could also be accessed via the white list. This was created more than ten years ago by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the umbrella organizations of the major patient and consumer organizations.
Christian Geinitz Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14 Sebastian Eder Published/Updated: Recommendations: 67 Marie Lisa Kehler Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 10
Data on case numbers, i.e. treatment experience, staffing ratios for specialists and nursing staff as well as complication rates for selected procedures should be available on the portal. The information should be clear, generally understandable and updated, as the ministry explained. The clinics should have to report additional data for the directory.
The law also provides for several regulations to strengthen the liquidity of the clinics, as Lauterbach said. Among other things, wage increases should be refinanced by the health insurance companies at an early stage. The law does not require approval in the Federal Council. It is intended to complement a fundamental reform to reorganize the clinics with changes to financing that the federal and state governments are working on.
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