For discussion: Quality assurance in medical care - is PKMS the right way to go?

Hospitals are legally obliged to take part in external comparative quality assurance programs. Quality indicators for pressure ulcer prevention are among the most widely used for geriatric clinical institutions. To enable more precise risk adjustment established risk factors are employed in conjunction with the OPS 9-200. Using a PKMS case to produce an OPS 9-200 is far too heterogeneous, sketchy and vague to create an accurate and satisfactory pressure ulcer risk assessment for patients with varied and individual case factors. Therefore we propose to include risk factors which, according to experts, are clearly and specifically related to pressure ulcers (e.g. immobility and incontinence) and matched by unique ICD codes.