[Benchmarking of public hospitals using the example of "4QD-Qualitätskliniken.de"].

Patients and their relatives can use to the portal Qualitätskliniken.de to individually search for hospitals in their neighbourhood. The search criteria include: diagnosis, types of treatment or specialised departments.

[Implementation of a standardized perioperative pain management concept in three hospitals of a consortium].

Background: Provision of sufficient perioperative pain therapy is an obligation in the clinical management of patients suffering from pain. The implementation of a standardized pain management concept was planned to be introduced in the clinical routine. The results of three hospitals are shown.

[Formulation of reference ranges within the scope of quality assurance from case account totals and special reimbursement. Are results of clinical studies helpful?].

Normal ranges, which were set up for quality control, serve to define an acceptable qualitative niveau of treatment. To establish such criteria, it is important to consider group-specific characteristics during investigations. Results of clinical trials are the basics to determine the normal range of parameters of quality control.

[Male subfertility and conventional in vitro fertilization in Germany 1990 to 1993].

A retrospective study was carried out to compare the results of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 20936 patients with different sperm parameters who underwent IVF in Germany between 1990 and 1993. The study was designed to evaluate prognostic factors for IVF outcome, such as sperm parameters and pre-treatment diagnosis. The percentage of subfertile sperm parameters ( < 10 millions sperm per ml and/or < 30% progressive mobility and/or < 30% normal morphology) increased from 31.

[Does quality assurance modify clinical research, medical progress and medical graduate education in surgery?].

For years, external safeguard of quality has been continuously practised in the field of surgery by several local medical societies. Beside its original task of comparing and reviewing given standards of all surgical departments, other clinically or scientifically relevant questions can be answered on the basis of the enormous numerical data, too. The patient data, available to the chamber of physicians of Westphalia-Lippe, German, are showing that the experiences of clinical research rapidly and almost ubiquitously find their expression in the daily routine work of surgeons.

[Polytrauma and femoral fracture].

From 1976 to 1986 1.003 polytraumatized patients were treated at our institution. 88% had suffered fractures of spine, pelvis and limbs.