Federal Statistical Office Germany

Department H: Health, Social Statistics, Education, Finance and Taxes; Unit H13: Health Related Accounting Systems

Graurheindorfer Str. 198, D-53117 Bonn

Statistics on healthcare non-expenditure provide information on healthcare human resources, healthcare facilities, and healthcare utilisation.

- The people active in the healthcare sector (doctors, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (graduates, practising, migration of doctors and nurses, etc.);

- The available healthcare technical resources and facilities (hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.);

- The health activities or patient contacts undertaken (hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).

Annual national and regional data are provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of a relevant population.

Data are based mainly on administrative records (see section 18.1 ‘Source data’ for more information).

For the collection data on healthcare non- expenditure, the classifications used in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (https://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/1841456.pdf ) are applied.

For hospital discharges, the International Shortlist for Hospital Morbidity Tabulation (ISHMT) is used

(https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/c1b49c83-24a7-4ff2-951c-621ac0a89fd8/library/6ff71dd5-8200-4fe4-a610-a7707cd47c4d).

For Health Employment, the Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications apply

(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2005/36/2020-04-24 ).

Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.

Where possible, the statistics are separated by sex (male/female), age group and NUTS2 region.

The Eurostat manual on healthcare non-expenditure statistics provides an overview of the classifications, both for mandatory variables and variables provided on voluntary basis.

National deviations: see Annex at the bottom of the page.

Public health.

The healthcare non-expenditure statistics describe the public health sector from a non-monetary perspective. The statistics explain the number or rate of different healthcare resources, facilities and utilisations. A wide range of indicators are collected from a multitude of sources and therefore, details pertaining to individual variables are given in the Annex.

Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.

The Eurostat manual on healthcare non-expenditure statistics provides an overview of the classifications, both for mandatory variables and variables provided on voluntary basis.

National changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from Regulation (EU) 2022/2294: see Annex at the bottom of the page.

Registered health professionals or health care facility categories.

(1) all health care staff

(2) all available beds or equipment in hospitals or in nursing and residential care facilities

(3) all discharges or procedures performed in all hospitals

Complete national territory

(1) health care staff: from 1991 onwards resp. from 2000 onwards (Health Labour Accounts)

(2) beds or equipment: from 1991 onwards

(3) discharges or procedures: from 2000 onwards (discharges) resp. from 2005 onwards (procedures)

Not applicable

Number at the end of the reference (calendar) year.

Number, headcount.

Average number during reference year.

For some variables on health employment, number of full-time equivalent (FTE) persons is used.

For some variables on healthcare activities, percentage (%) of those screened/immunised is used.

Calendar year.

Regulation on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work (EC) No 1338/2008 

Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294 on statistics on healthcare facilities, healthcare human resources and healthcare utilisation 

Gentlemen’s agreement

Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics, which is carried by Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe.

Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) in conjunction with General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO)

Most of the data in this data collection is not subject to confidentiality.
Various rules of confidentiality apply to the few indicators in which there may be cases of confidentiality: rounding to 3 cases, reporting only values ​​above a certain limit, representation in 1000 (see annex at the bottom of the page).

Not available.

Not available.

The data of the official statistics are made available to all users at the same time in the form of press releases, reference to updates in the online offers, etc.

Annual

Data of the Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/_inhalt.html

Data of the Federal Statistical Office:

There are only a few statistical reports. Most of the data is available online (see Section '10.3' On-line database for more information).

Other data:

see annex at the bottom of the page

Data of the Federal Statistical Office:

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Home/_inhalt.html

https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online

https://www.gbe-bund.de/gbe/

Other data:

see annex at the bottom of the page

Not applicable.

Delivery of data via the Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics to the international organizations Eurostat, OECD and WHO.

Data of the Federal Statistical Office:

see https://www.destatis.de/DE/Methoden/Qualitaet/_inhalt.html

Other data:

see annex at the bottom of the page

Data of the Federal Statistical Office:

see https://www.destatis.de/DE/Methoden/Qualitaet/_inhalt.html

Other data:

see annex at the bottom of the page

The data is compiled from various data sources. This is mainly official administrative data. All data are subjected to a plausibility check. Deviations from the given definitions from the manual are documented in the Sources and Methods (see Annex at the bottom of the page).

In general, we rate the data quality as good.

The data are used by different user groups. Politics, administration, media, associations, chambers, education, science, private users etc.

Not available.

In principle, all content-related requirements of the relevant laws, regulation and guidelines are fulfilled. If there are deviations, these are described in the sources and methods (see annex at the bottom of the page).

Most indicators are based on data from official statistics (e.g. hospital statistics, care statistics) and are therefore subject to their quality criteria. The other statistics are usually validated internally by the relevant data holders. In order to identify systematic errors in the basic statistics and to correct them if necessary, the original data is comprehensively checked for completeness and plausibility before delivery. In the event of discrepancies, the data holder will be contacted. Therefore, we rate the data accuracy as generally good.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

(1) health care staff:   t+13 months

(2) beds or equipment:   t+12 months

(3) discharges or procedures:   t+11 months

(4) others:   t+14 months 

        overall t+14 months until delivery of data via the Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics to the international organizations

The data are delivered to the international organizations on schedule.

The data are comparable within Germany. As a rule, there are no deviations from the international concepts, otherwise this is indicated in the Sources and Methods (see annex at the bottom of the page).

The individual indicators are generally comparable in a time series. If there are breaks in the time series, these are described in the Sources and Methods (see annex at the bottom of the page).

Not applicable.

Data are consistent.

There are costs for the coordination and processing of the data delivery as well as for the collection of the Health Personnel Accounts, whose data is required for the reporting of the health non-expenditure data. As a rule, available data sources are used and an attempt is made to keep the burden on the respondents as low as possible.

A revision means the revision of the results, for example by considering new data, new statistics and/or improved methods.

The publication of a general revision policy is intended to strengthen trust in official statistics and further improve the usability of statistics. In particular, the revision procedures used should be presented across statistics in a transparent and comprehensible way. An overview of the revision policy of the federal and state statistical offices in Germany can be found at:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Methoden/Revisionen/_inhalt.html 

Reasons for revisions are for example

• the implementation of new concepts, definitions, classifications and the like;

• the inclusion of new data sources;

• the introduction of new statistical calculation bases;

• the application of new calculation methods;

• increasing international comparability.

Source data for the different variables are given in the Annex at the bottom of the page.

Annual.

The indicators in this data collection are based on many different data sources. Some of the data is freely accessible, others require extensive special evaluations by the data holders and auxiliary calculations. For details see annex at the bottom of the page.

The data is comprehensively checked for completeness and plausibility before delivery. In the event of discrepancies, the data holder will be contacted.

If there are sporadic data failures in the time series, the missing values ​​are determined using appropriate imputation methods (e.g. updating, calculation of mean values, etc.).

Not applicable.

For more detailed information on the indicators see annex at the bottom of the page.