A former government commission leader has expressed severe concerns about the future quality standards in hospitals. Tom Bschor, the former leader of the government commission, believes that crucial guidelines will likely be softened under the pressure of influential interest groups, according to a recent interview with the German magazine, Focus.
Bschor’s concerns revolve around the so-called performance groups, which will play a decisive role in the billing of hospital services to the statutory health insurance funds in the future. The already lax quality criteria for the performance groups are set to be further relaxed, he claims.
The outcome, Bschor warns, is that hospitals may allow for too many exceptions, such as botched operations on the liver, pancreas, or esophagus, due to inadequately trained personnel. Complications and the risk of patient death would be significantly higher in such cases. Furthermore, some federal states intend to declare certain hospitals as indispensable, thereby exempting them from quality standards altogether, to the detriment of patient safety.
The new Health Minister, Nina Warken, has not engaged in discussions with Bschor since taking office, according to the former leader. Michael Weller, a former department head and a strong advocate of the reform in its original form, has left the ministry. Bschor, who recently received a notice of termination, effective June 30, has been critical of the reform’s watered-down version.