Systematic Analysis of the Annual Quality Reports of the Federal Joint Committee with Regard to Cataract Surgery

Background: Cataract is one of the most common diseases in ophthalmology. Up to now the only way to estimate the total number of carried out surgeries in Germany were the surveys done by DOG, BVA, DGII and BDOC or reports of the federal statistical office. Objectives: Objective of this paper is to evaluate the annual quality reports of the Federal Joint Committee with a view to how the hospitals are participating in the nationwide comprehensive coverage concerning cataract surgery and if there is a continuing trend to more outpatient cataract surgeries in German eye hospitals. Material and Methods: The number of outpatient and inpatient cataract surgeries included in the annual quality reports of 2006, 2008 and 2010 were put into relation with population density for every provincial state. Results: In 2006, 2008 and 2010 a total of 765,179 cataract surgeries were recorded. Median number of cataract surgeries per 1000 inhabitants showed an only slight increase (2006: 2.8; 2008 and 2010: 3.0; p = 0.82). The ratio of outpatient to inpatient surgeries showed only a slight increase from 0.84 (2006) to 0.86 (2010). Conclusions: Lack of spatial and temporal variations imply that hospitals take a part in supplying the population with cataract surgery. There is no trend to more outpatient cataract surgeries at the moment. This implies that there might be a stable patient population that is not suitable for outpatient care.