[Quality management in and by public health services]

Quality management is nowadays required by almost all organisations using public funds. Hence, quality management in public health services (PHS) first serves to make transparent the services offered, the performance, and the quality of services to comply with public demands for accountability. In addition, by following generally accepted concepts and methods of quality management, it could help to improve the performance of PHS. As a second function, quality management by PHS can be delineated. In this, PHS assumes the role of an independent quality manager of health services by reporting comparatively on regional services, their performance and the quality of care on a population basis. Considering recently introduced statutory incentives in Germany (such as disease management programmes and minimum volume thresholds for certain procedures) that could negatively affect social equity and access to health services, such a comparative quality and performance reporting by PHS is getting more and more important.