After a year of institutional promotion, process reengineering, and a 13-day final evaluation, supervised by three German experts from KTQ, Tongji Hospital in Wuhan yesterday became the first Asian hospital to pass Europe's most distinguished medical quality certification authenticated by The Cooperation for Transparency und Quality in Healthcare, also known as KTQ certification.

As a third-party hospital certification institution under government commission, The Cooperation for Transparency und Quality in Healthcare (KTQ) is comprised of an independent panel of more than 350 judges with expertise in health insurance, medicine, hospital management, nursing and doctor qualifications. There are 540 out of 2,000 German hospitals that have already passed KTQ certification. In particular, the "100 Best Chinese Hospitals Award" uses nearly identical assessment methods as KTQ certification.

The patient-centered KTQ evaluation at Tongji Hospital also values employee orientation, safety, communication and information management, hospital orientation and quality management. According to Liao Jiazhi, vice president of Tongji, KTQ certification is a more deserving certification system in the medical industry, comparable to universal ISO standards in numerous industries, due to its refinement in patient experience and medical service. The certification also emphasizes improvements in medical quality and dynamic hospital processes. "Passing KTQ evaluation means Tongji is one step closer to its global reach," said the president of Tongji Hospital, Chen Anmin. "More importantly, the improvements in process reengineering in terms of KTQ standards will bring many benefits to not only the hospital but also our patients," Chen added.