German health insurance law requires the Federal Joint Committee, the body that sets rules for medical care, to lay down minimum requirements for quality. Section 136 of the Fifth Book of the Social Code names three kinds: Struktur-, Prozess- und Ergebnisqualität, the quality of structure, of process and of outcome.
The committee explains process quality with a question. Welche Arbeitsschritte sind erforderlich, damit beispielsweise eine Operation … wie vorgesehen abläuft? Which work steps are needed so that an operation, for example, runs as intended? Its data-based quality procedures deal with process quality and outcome quality for certain treatments.