The Bavarian Hospital Association (BKG) continues to see major deficiencies in the hospital search engine that the Federal Ministry of Health put online a month ago. However, it is not to be expected that the ministry will switch off the Federal Hospital Atlas again, said BKG Managing Director Roland Engehausen on Monday in Munich. For this reason, his umbrella organization has put forward a series of demands and at the same time offered to help improve the search engine.
The hospital association demands that the ministry make it clear that the portal is currently not suitable for people with psychiatric or psychosomatic problems. Many of the relevant facilities are not even listed. The fact that people can still search for treatment options is “a scandal,” criticized BKG boss Engehausen. In Bavaria in particular, there are many specialist clinics in this area that fall through the cracks in the Federal Clinic Atlas.
Matthias Keller, head of the children’s department at the Third Order Clinics in Passau, also criticized the lack of a search function for parents who want to find offers for their children. The Federal Clinic Atlas provides extremely misleading results here because it is only geared towards adult medicine. The pediatrics professor therefore believes: “One can only advise parents against using the Federal Clinic Atlas to search for the best care.”
The hospital association emphasizes that it has had its own portal, the German Hospital Directory, for many years, where patients can find out about the services offered by various clinics. Based on the experience with the hospital directory, the association is fundamentally prepared to work on further developing the Federal Hospital Atlas, explains BKG Managing Director Engehausen.