Neuausrichtung der NRW-Krankenhausplanung – Bedeutung für die Herz-Kreislauf-Medizin und die Thoraxchirurgie

The year 2022 will mark the beginning of a new era for hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the reorganization of hospital planning in NRW to an allocation of treatment assignments via specialized medical service groups with personnel and infrastructural structural quality requirements specific for this purpose instead of via specialized departments and beds, a new form of hospital planning and structuring is implemented. This method is now proposed by the “government commission for a modern and needs-based hospital treatment” implemented by the Minister of Health Lauterbach as a structurization option for the whole of Germany in combination with hospital treatment levels. Therefore, it would be advisable to become acquainted with the possible effects on cardiovascular medicine in a timely manner, in order to anticipate possible alterations in the treatment assignments of one’s own hospital as well as other hospitals with repercussions for cooperations with cardiac surgery.