[Experiences of an Initiative Qualitätsmedizin reviewer]

The quality of medical care is on a high level in hospitals, yet variations in quality as well as room for improvement can often be identified. This potential can be made visible by active error management. The Initiative Qualitätsmedizin (IQM) carries out a quality measurement based on routine data. Furthermore, it commits to the transparency of the results by publication. Other means for quality improvement include peer review.

Peer reviews serve to clarify statistical abnormalities with the applied quality indicators without using reprisals. Reviews take place following accepted analysis criteria and are subject to explicit rules concerning the process. The peer teams are comprised of members from several providers. Each review is ended with a summarized record including a proposed solution as well as a time frame. It is essential that all participants are satisfied after finishing the peer review. The subsequent implementation is the responsibility of the head of medicine.

It is a challenge, especially in the field of medicine, to change long-standing learned and practised processes. To bring one's daily actions to the attention by others publicly might yet be another and even bigger challenge. The willingness to undergo such a process and to accept the resulting criticism is being experienced and accepted very differently.