Verdict No Dentist Search with Code of Ethics

OLG Schleswig stops dentist chamber Schleswig-Holstein
(Jur). The Dentistry Chamber of Schleswig-Holstein may not link the practice search offered on its website with a "code of honor". This misleads consumers and discriminates against dentists who have not signed the "code of honor", as the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Schleswig, Germany, in an express decision announced on Thursday, May 19, 2016 (Az .: 6 U 22/15).

The Dentists' Association offers patients a practice search on their websites. You can search by name, city or postal code, subject areas and additional qualifications. In addition, so far also the search criterion "code of honor" was included and already preset in the search mask. Patients who did not remove the check mark were therefore only reported to dentists who have signed the code.

Image: Photographee.eu - fotolia

The "Code of Ethics of the Dental Profession Schleswig-Holstein" was adopted in 2014 in the Chamber Assembly. In ten "guiding principles", the signatories commit themselves among other things to fairness to patients, employees and colleagues as well as to the observance of the already binding regulations for hygiene or advanced training.

Furthermore, the "Code of Ethics" also contains health policy statements, in particular regarding the competition and the primacy of freelance individual practice. Specifically, it says: "I do not conclude individual contracts with health insurance companies, private health insurers or service providers, because such contracts encourage cheap medicine, dumping prices and deterioration in quality. For me, owner-led practice is the form of practice that best meets the needs of my patients. I refuse chain practices and practices in the hands of corporations. "

The plaintive dentist had not signed this. From his chamber he demanded that the search criterion "code of honor" no longer be used. Like the district court of Kiel, the OLG Schleswig rightly gave it to him. The Dentistry Chamber of Schleswig-Holstein has already complied; she no longer uses the criterion.

The OLG explained that the search criterion "code of honor" gives the signatory dentists an unjustified advantage in the competition for the patients. It gives the impression that the "code of honor" is just as important a criterion for patients as the qualifications.

"This impression is misleading and does not agree with the real conditions," complained the Schleswig judges. All the treatment of patients concerning statements of the "code of honor '" are anyway "medical and civil law matters of course, which can not be advertised for legal reasons isolated".

The fact that users of the search could remove the check mark with the criterion of "honor code" does not change anything in the legal evaluation. Because the patients trusted that the Dentists' Association has made the search "objective and appropriate," emphasized the OLG in its judgment of 12 May 2016. (mwo / fle)