Bertelsmann Stiftung (ed.)

Dr. Stefan Etgeton, Marcel Weigand

SPOTLIGHT Healthcare: Public Reporting on medical practices

Open data policy establishes greater transparency for patients

Format Type
PDF
Date of publication
12/09/2018
Edition
1. edition
Volume/Format
8 pages, PDF

Price

Free of charge

Description

The awareness that there are differences in quality in healthcare is now widespread in Germany as well. More than half the public assume that these differences are not small, but rather large to very large in scale. This is substantiated by, for example, representative surveys from TNS Emnid on behalf of the Weisse Liste. However, pinning down these differences in quality proves difficult, especially with respect to physicians in private practice: Whereas hospitals have been required by law to provide regular reports on their structure, range of services, and treatment outcomes for over ten years now, there is, as yet, no comparable legal basis for outpatient care in Germany.

The IGES study on public reporting on the quality of physicians in private practice initially investigates which approaches to increase transparency in other countries have already been implemented, or what is specifically planned for this purpose. Denmark, England, the Netherlands, and the United States are closely examined – countries in which the transparency of quality in outpatient care is already more advanced than in Germany. The study shows which approaches and strategies have proven their worth outside of Germany, and what elements of these can be implemented in the German healthcare system. This Spotlight Healthcare presents the key findings of the IGES study and subsequent recommendations on the publication of quality data on physicians in private practice.

Related projects

Cover Weisse Liste

Die Weisse Liste hatte zum Ziel, mit Hilfe von selbst betriebenen Online-Vergleichsportalen und forschungsbasierten Empfehlungen Transparenz über die Qualität der Gesundheitsversorgung in Deutschland herzustellen. Mit der Krankenhaussuche, Arzt- und Pflegeheimsuchen und weiteren digitalen Angeboten konnten Patientinnen und Patienten das für sie beste Versorgungsangebot herausfinden.