Information on the Quality of Medical Services

TGCampo Serial expat

Member since 30 August 2023

TGCampoSerial expatToday 17:19:51

340

Is there in Portugal an Organization, which gathers (and makes available to the public) information on the quality of medical services provided by clinics. I am mainly thinking of procedures like hip or knee replacements, but generally all surgical procedures medical clinics are providing. In other countries the SNS or the private insurance companies have very good records, which are anonymized and allow a ranking of clinics by performance. Is there something like that in Portugal? It would be a bi help in selecting the right clinic a procedure.

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JohnnyPT Portugal Expert

Member since 23 May 2020

JohnnyPTPortugal ExpertToday 18:11:01

5198

In Portugal, the organization responsible for this monitoring is the ERS (Entidade Reguladora da Saúde), the Health Regulatory Entity, through a specific system called SINAS (Sistema Nacional de Avaliação em Saúde).

This system evaluates both public and private hospitals, as well as public-private partnerships (PPP), making the results available to the public to promote transparency and assist patients in making informed choices.

How does SINAS work?

SINAS does not operate as a simple linear ranking (from 1st to 100th place), but rather as a rating system based on levels of quality. The evaluation is divided into five main dimensions:

Clinical Excellence: Evaluates treatment outcomes and procedures (e.g., survival rates, complications).
Patient Safety: Focuses on the prevention of errors and adverse events.
Adequacy and Comfort of Facilities.
Patient Focus: Waiting times and ease of booking.
Patient Satisfaction: Surveys filled out by the patients themselves.

Specific Procedures (Hip and Knee)

In the Clinical Excellence dimension, SINAS evaluates specific medical areas. Orthopaedics (Ortopedia) is one of the monitored areas, specifically including hip and knee arthroplasties (replacements).

You can check which institutions have achieved the "Clinical Excellence" level for these surgeries. If a clinic or hospital has the highest rating in this category, it means their performance and safety indicators are above the national average.

Where to Consult the Data:

You can access the official ERS portal to search by provider or by geographical area:

SINAS Portal: https://www.ers.pt/ (Look for the "Utente" or "Resultados SINAS" section).

Methodology: The system first awards a base "star" (Level I) if the hospital meets the minimum quality requirements, followed by a rating of I, II, or III (with III being the superior level).

Main page:

https://apch2.ers.pt/pages/118

Eg. Select "Hospitais", then select one Hospital, then select "excelencia clinica"(*), then select "ortopedia"

(*) one of the 5 dimensions

https://apch2.ers.pt/pages/198

Symbols / Legend:

https://apch2.ers.pt/pages/186

PS.

Eg. Hospital da Luz Lisboa is quite good for your problem ( ortopedia classification 3* )