Patient Protection Register for treatment errors

Patient advocates call for records of treatment errors

06/23/2014

After it became known that thousands of patient complaints have been confirmed because of treatment errors, the German Foundation for Patient Protection now calls for a national registry. For that, the federal government is in demand.

Patronists demand national registry
The German Patient Protection Foundation has called for a national registry with a view to a new statistics on treatment errors. CEO Eugen Brysch told the news agency dpa in Berlin: „Everyone counts the treatment errors individually, nobody has the complete overview.“ The German Medical Association wants to present new figures on treatment errors in Berlin today. The statistics show how many patients referred to the expert commissions and arbitration boards of the medical profession with a suspected error last year and in how many cases they confirmed a mistake.

More reports than the year before
The Medical Service of Health Insurance Funds (MDK) has already submitted its statistics. According to this, he asked about 14,600 appraisals last year on suspicion of errors. That was a good 2,000 more than in 2012. About 70 percent of the allegations were directed against hospitals, the remaining 30 percent concerned physicians in private practice. According to MDK, most of the allegations were related to surgeries, as was the case in previous years. Orthopedics or trauma surgery and general surgery were the most frequently confronted with treatment error reproaches.

12,000 complaints due to suspected treatment errors
According to information from the news agency dpa, the current statistics of the medical associations show that around 12,000 patients complained last year about suspected treatment errors. The magazine „The mirror“ according to which 8,000 cases were closed and confirmed in about 2,200 cases suspicion. The error rate was attributed by the President of the Federal Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, to growing stress of the medical profession. the „mirror“ he said: „For years, the work intensity in German clinics and practices has been increasing.“ The probability of error is increased by long working hours and constant pressure to perform. It was therefore „remarkable“, that the number of registered treatment errors has remained largely constant in recent years.

Error confirmed in every fourth case
As Brysch demanded for the patient protection foundation, the numbers of the medical associations, the medical service of the health insurance funds and the civil and social courts would have to come together in a national registry. „So we gain an overview.“ Such a register would have to be set up by the Federal Government. „Likewise, it makes sense to publish the treatment errors individually depending on the facilities“, so Brysch. „People want to know what's going on locally.“ In the past, an error was confirmed in every fourth disputed case. The risks for the patients are from the point of view of the health insurance companies too large and this despite increased efforts of many clinics to avoid errors. (Ad)