Quality of health care

Fact sheet: Managing chronic disease

Chronic diseases are usually lifelong conditions. This does not, however, necessarily mean that the disease dominate the entire life of the person who has it. Disease management programs (DMPs) aim to help people get on top of their chronic disease and have a good quality of life. "Disease management" is the concept of systematically treating and managing a condition. It should improve the therapy of chronically ill people in the long term and help them to understand their disease better. This may mean dealing with the treatment and demands of their disease in a well-informed way and finding out how to live as good a life as possible with the disease. more...

Minimum surgery volumes in hospitals: Are the outcomes better in hospitals that do more operations?

There may be advantages to having surgery for a total knee replacement, for example, in a hospital with a higher volume of this operation. However, setting specific minimum volumes for operations in German hospitals is not simple. more...

Nursing workload in hospitals: Does it have an impact on the health of patients?

In German hospitals the number of patients each nurse needs to care for has noticeably increased. It is not yet possible to conclude whether or not this has had an effect on the quality of patient care in Germany. more...

Preterm birth and very low birthweight: Do hospitals that treat more preterm babies provide them with better care?

Preterm babies seem to be more likely to survive if they are cared for in large neonatal units, but it is not clear why. more...