Numerous German clinics lack sufficient equipment for the adequate care of heart attack and some cancer patients. This emerges from the new "Quality Monitor". Especially in clinics that only take care of a few cases a year, the cath lab, which is so important, is missing.
According to a report, thousands of patients in Germany are not optimally cared for because they are treated in clinics without adequate equipment and case numbers. This emerges from the "quality monitor" of the AOK's scientific institute (Wido), reports the "Handelsblatt". According to this, for example, more than 14,000 of the 203,000 heart attack patients ended up in a hospital without a catheter laboratory.
According to the information provided, the "quality monitor" examined the areas of heart attack and breast and lung cancer in 2020. With regard to the more than 14,000 heart attack patients in a hospital without a catheter laboratory, it is pointed out that the guideline of the German Society of Cardiology recommends hospitals without one bypass such 24-hour facility.
In the 362 hospitals that treated fewer than 25 cases in 2020, only one in five had such a laboratory, according to the information. However, these clinics alone treated more than 4,000 heart attack patients. In contrast, in the clinics with 240 cases per year, each clinic had a cath lab. In addition, every fifth treatment for breast cancer was carried out in a clinic with fewer than 25 cases per year, according to the "Quality Monitor" available to the newspaper.
"You have to keep in mind that 25 surgeries per year correspond to about one intervention every two weeks," said Wido Managing Director Jürgen Klauber. "Under these circumstances, one cannot assume that there is a well-rehearsed team with sufficient routine and a well-rehearsed process chain."
