The federal government is planning to introduce a German Patients' Bill of Rights in 2011 to improve health care services provided by hospitals and doctors, according to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. Jens Spahn, a parliament member who sits on the health committee, told the paper that this legislation would provide hospitals with financial incentives to have only two patients in a room—some hospitals now have shared rooms with up to four patients. The plans for such a law could provoke criticism from German hospitals, as some generate revenues by giving priority for two-bedded rooms to patients with private health insurance. Furthermore, it will be expensive to create this standard for all hospitals.
Other aspects of the envisioned Patients' Bill of Rights include: 1) requiring specialists to keep appointments within a three-week range; 2) malpractice suit reforms; and 3) automatic approval of medical device applications if German sickness funds do not process them within a defined period of time.
Sources:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101227-32053.html