Zertifizierte Gefäßzentren in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz
摘要
The foundation and cooperation of the societies for vascular surgery in Austria (ÖGG), Germany (DGG), and Switzerland (SGG) is presented with a focus on quality efforts and, in particular, the development of “certified vascular centres”. The quality assurance and certification systems in Germany and Switzerland today receive a high level of acceptance and visibility. In addition to an improvement in structural and process quality, scientific work in healthcare research has shown that certification has significantly improved the quality of care for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms, peripheral arterial occlusive disease and carotid stenosis. Potential further developments of the quality assurance and certification systems in the context of the hospital reform in Germany and the focus on centralisation and outpatient care are presented. The successful transnational co-operation between the specialist associations in the D‑A-CH (Germany–Austria–Switzerland) region should be further intensified.