All about Medical Treatment in Germany

Quality check

Germany and Germans are said to be very quality conscious. So it is no surprise that the Initiative for Quality in Medicine (IQM) was started recently. Up to now 114 hospitals have joined, committing to a high standard of transparency in medical quality. However, IQM is not alone. Since 2004 the Cooperation for Quality and Transparency in Healthcare (KTQ) has offered a voluntary certification procedure for hospitals. As of October 2009 about 700 hospitals have implemented an internal quality management system according to the KTQ standards. In total 1,000 hospitals have been certified or re-certified. In addition, German hospitals are required by law to publish quality reports bi-annually informing about cases, indications and success rates of medical procedures and treatments. So when you are looking for treatment in Germany, take the hospitals’ quality policy into account. Have they joined the IQM, are they KTQ certified, is their quality report available?