[Analysis and assurance of quality in cardiac rehabilitation]

Changing living conditions lead to an increasing demand of preventive measures, in which cardiologic rehabilitation plays an important part. To achieve these goals the rehabilitation carriers agreed on recommendations concerning quality analysis and quality management, leading to the introduction of an extensive quality assurance program. The peer review assesses rehabilitation benefits based upon the analysis of patient discharge letters and therapy schedules. In a survey among patient satisfaction with and results of the rehabilitation are registered. Also the running time of discharge letters serves as an indicator of quality. Finally the pension insurance carrier carries out visitations on a regular base, thereby linking external quality assurance and internal quality management. To register the process quality within the context of quality assurance, guidelines concerning content and frequency of therapeutic measures were developed by the German pension insurance. Health insurance carriers provide a comparable quality assurance program. With no possibility for randomized and controlled studies measuring the effectiveness of rehabilitation in Germany only registry data can be used. In numerous registry studies impressive results from secondary prevention could be found. Consequently, quality management and Quality analysis rate high within the process of rehabilitation.