Organ removal hospitals and transplantation centres
The removal of organs is a shared task between transplantation centres and organ removal hospitals. An organ donation can take place in a hospital if it has at least an intensive care unit with artificial respiration places. In Germany, there are currently 1,248 hospitals (retrieved: 2018) which meet the minimum requirements and are hence suitable as removal hospitals according to the Organ Transplantation Act. They have the duty to appoint a full-time commissary for transplantations whose task, among others, is to identify possible donations, organize the process of organ donation, advise the hospital staff and provide guidance for relatives. Organ removal hospitals are legally obliged to immediately report any potential organ donor to the coordination unit. While the organ removal takes place in the removal hospitals, the transplantation of the removed organ can only be carried out by a transplantation centre. There are currently 46 transplantation centres in Germany. To ensure the quality of transplantation, the legislator decided that transplantation centres are not allowed to transplant all kinds of organs, but must build specializations.
List of all transplantation centres in Germany: Online Version (German)