Services with "insufficient quality" identified at 73 hospitals in Germany

Hospitals in Germany provide patients with medical services of "insufficient quality" in some areas, according to a first-ever official assessment of its kind in the country, which was published on Monday.

In an analysis of 1,085 individual clinics, serious shortcomings were identified at 73 German hospitals in three assessed medical fields of obstetrics, breast cancer operations and gynaecology.

The clinics in question were indicated as having provided services with "insufficient quality" in a verdict reached following close scrutiny of 2.5 million datasets by the Berlin-based Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Health Care (IQTIG).

The IQTIG was first created by the previous "grand coalition" of the German Social Democrats (SPD), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Christian Social Union (CSU) in 2014 with the passing of a new "law to further develop the financial structure and quality of statutory health insurance" in Germany.

The legislation in question was aimed at making hospital planning and financing more dependent on empirical evidence of the quality of care they provide to patients. The IQTIG is tasked with conducting a regular statistical assessment of medical care providers in this context and entering into a "structured dialogue" with hospitals where needed to provide clinics with a rating of their performance.

It is mostly at the discretion of state-level governments in Germany how to proceed if a clinic within their regional jurisdiction receives the worst-possible "insufficient quality" mark.

Legislators can shut down units which repeatedly showcase serious shortcomings or inject more funding in a bid to alleviate the situation.