Health
New version of the Clinic Atlas available
Some complaints were made about the “Federal Hospital Atlas” containing incorrect and outdated information. Photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
A federal portal is also intended to help patients find the best hospital. After heavy criticism, it has now been relaunched.
The “Federal Clinic Atlas” launched a month ago is now available in a new, slimmed down version. The state portal received a comprehensive update, as reported by the Federal Ministry of Health.
For comparison purposes, the respective treatment experience for 20 important intervention complexes can now be queried, after originally there were more detailed information on 23,000 individual types of intervention. Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had made it clear that this was too confusing for patients and also for doctors.
The portal’s homepage now has seven large tiles covering the areas of heart, lungs, cancer, bones and joints, neurology, gynecology and birth, and blood vessels. Individual illnesses and operations can then be accessed, with more to follow. Lauterbach spoke of an interface that is much easier for patients to use. There, you can see straight away which clinics nearby have a lot of experience with cancer treatments, endoprostheses, or heart surgery.
Criticism of the new version
The hospital atlas, which was launched in mid-May, is intended to provide information on the services and quality of treatment at around 1,700 hospitals. It received its first update after just one week. The states, medical societies and the hospital sector, which operates its own information portal, have been heavily critical of the data displayed. Some of the information was complained about being incorrect and out of date. The ministry explained that the atlas is a digital project that is constantly being improved. Lauterbach stressed that the treatment data used is correct.
The German Foundation for Patient Protection criticized the new version. To prevent Lauterbach from allowing his much-vaunted transparency offensive to degenerate into banality, the project must be shut down, said board member Eugen Brysch.