Basic standards of a specialty department for heart surgery: Quality requirements for the care of heart patients in connection with surgeries/interventions on the heart, the vessels close to the heart and the thoracic organ transplantation [Basisstandards einer Fachabteilung für Herzchirurgie: Qualit?tsanforderungen für die Versorgung von herzkranken Patientinnen und Patienten im Zusammenhang mit Operationen/Eingriffen am Herzen, den herznahen Gef??en und der thorakalen Organtransplantation]

摘要

Current evolutions and substantial amendments of the German health care system in combination with distinguished progress in cardiac surgery over the past years require both a reflection of principles in patient-centered care and an update of basic standard requirements for a department of cardiac surgery in Germany. In due consideration of the data from the voluntary registry of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, this article accurately defines core requirements for a cardiac surgical department (cardiac surgery on-site), subdivided into facilities, staff and processes. If based on these standards, one may anticipate that cardiac surgical care is performed under appropriate conditions leading to an intrinsic benefit for patients.