If you are looking for terms that consist of several words, put them in quotation marks. Examples:

• "breast cancer"
• "television by bed"
• "occupational therapy"

Why quotation marks? Most search fields work with several entered words as a so-called "OR search". Hospitals are found where at least one of the terms applies. If you enter "birth with a suction cup", the search will specifically look for hospitals that have experience with birth supported by a suction cup. Entering birth with a suction cup (without quotation marks), on the other hand, searches both for the multi-word term and individually for "birth" and "suction cup". The search becomes significantly less specific because it also throws out all hits in which only the term "birth" occurs alone. The small word "with" is recognized by the search as a filler word and not searched because it is very common in texts of all kinds.

The search in the German Hospital Directory searches various catalogs, e.g. the official medical catalogs of diseases (ICD) and treatments (OPS) as well as various selection lists, lists of specialist departments and the texts of the structured quality reports of the hospitals.

If your search does not produce the desired result, it may be that the search word appears in a different form in the catalogs - for example plural instead of singular. To be on the safe side, try other word forms (inflections).

For various common search words, inflections are already stored in the German Hospital Directory, but of course not for all possible word entries.

If you know the keys to the ICD (diseases) or OPS (treatments) catalogs, you can search specifically for hospitals that treat or treat these diseases according to the quality report. To do this, enter the key in the What? Field.

If you enter the key at a higher level, all associated subkeys are automatically searched. For example, enter H40 (ICD key for glaucoma), this search also includes H40.0, H40.1 to H40.9.

Body navigation supports you in the targeted search for hospitals that treat certain common diseases or carry out treatments. If you move the mouse over the organs (or click on them in the mobile device), you will be shown diseases / treatments that match the organs.

If you click on one of the terms shown in the box, you will be taken directly to the appropriate hospitals (in the selected geographic search region) without having to be familiar with the medical terms.

The medical services of the hospitals are documented in extensive official catalogs of diseases (ICD) and treatments (OPS). The German Hospital Directory also makes it easier for you, as a non-medical professional, to search with these catalogs, which are actually more specialized.

That's how it's done:

On the home page, in the What? Field or on the search results page, in the search field above the list of hospitals, type the disease or treatment you are looking for with a term you know. If the search word is a disease or treatment, a pop-up element with the title is displayed on the search result page: "Show diseases (ICD) and treatments (OPS) considered in the search".

Clicking on this link opens a list of all matching ICD and OPS keys for your search term. Popular terms are often translated into technical terms ("diabetes" also finds "diabetes"). If you click on the ICD or OPS key that exactly describes your search in the list, only those hospitals that have experience with precisely this disease or treatment will be displayed.

Tip: If the list is very long, your search term is probably too unspecific. If you e.g. If you search for "operation", you will be shown several thousand ICD and OPS keys, because there are innumerable variations on almost every part of the body. Instead, search for specific terms with exact terms and put multi-word searches in quotes (example: "breast cancer").

You do not have to be familiar with the terms used in hospitals for certain medical care services or facility features in order to be able to search for them specifically.

The "structure search" leads you according to subject areas to the terms in the appropriate spelling, with which hospitals describe their offers in the structured quality reports. So you can search directly (within your entered geographic search region) for suitable hospitals that offer the desired services and facilities.

To find hospitals according to their geographical location, the hospital directory offers several options:

• Search for a zip code or city name in the Where? Field
• When using the map search, have the hospitals in a specific region shown with pin needles on the Google Maps map
• When searching for the federal state, first select the desired federal state and then the city where the hospital should be located..

With the special "Search for Accessibility Aspects" you can specifically find hospitals that offer certain barrier-free services and features.

So that you do not have to know the usual terms used in hospitals, the "Search for Accessibility Aspects" offers a guided search: Start with a topic and click on the desired aspect.

Tip: Hospitals provide information about accessibility aspects either across the entire hospital or specifically for each specialist department, if different aspects of accessibility play a role there.

The German Hospital Directory calculates the specified distance from your search center to the hospital according to geo-coordinates (longitude and latitude). The distance is shown as the crow flies.

Since the address of the location is available for the hospital, its geo-coordinates can be calculated exactly. The starting point is calculated on the basis of the geo-center of the entered postcode area or the entered city and is therefore somewhat less precise.

If a hospital is on the other side of a river or a mountain has to be avoided, the distance as the crow flies in the German Hospital Directory can be significantly longer on arrival.

So that you can calculate the route by car, public transport, bicycle or on foot, both the search results page and each individual hospital page under "Directions" offers a link to a Google Maps map. The destination address of the desired hospital is already entered in this. If you add your exact start address (the current location is usually calculated automatically in mobile devices), you can have the route shown and use the navigation function of Google Maps.

In the Where? field, you can enter the postcode or a place name for your search region. Which of the entries gives a more precise result depends largely on whether you are looking for more densely populated or rural areas.

The distance calculation in the German Hospital Directory is based on the geographic center of the postcode areas or the cities entered.

Since larger cities are divided into numerous postcode areas, entering a postcode is usually much more precise than entering the name of the city.

In sparsely populated areas, however, postcode areas are sometimes very large and, in some cases, elongated (which makes it difficult to calculate the geographic center), since their size and shape are primarily based on Swiss Post's delivery logistics. In this case, it can be much more accurate to search for hospitals using the place name.

Some cities have the same name. There are Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt an der Oder, city names like Oldenburg or Neustadt are even more common in Germany.

When you enter the city name in the Where? Field of the hospital directory, all matching city names are displayed with a distinctive name (e.g. "Frankfurt am Main" or '"Freiburg im Breisgau"). The cities are sorted according to the number of inhabitants.

Tip: If you search with the postcode instead of the city name, you will automatically be selected the correct city.