How should a Swiss clinic organise its licensing evidence?

Keep the evidence in four places, the licence file, the people file, the patient record and the quality file, each with an owner. Zurich's renewal asks for a current organigram, staffing plan, insurance and any changed plans, and Geneva expects an up to date staff list and written incident reports at any time.

What the cantons ask to see again

A Zurich renewal asks for a current organigram for every site, a staffing plan with positions and workload per site, the liability insurance, and plans, infrastructure agreements and criminal record extracts where anything has changed.¹ Changes to the operator's name, seat or legal form, a new, moved or closed site, a change of services and a change of lead must be reported in writing in advance for approval, and new doctors with their own licence must be notified too.¹² In Geneva, the licence holder must check that every professional it employs holds a cantonal licence, announce every arrival and departure in writing without delay, report any fact that could change the licence, and keep a current list of professionals and care assistants.³

Four files, each with an owner

1. Set up the four files. Licence, people, patient record and quality, each with a named owner.
2. Keep the record as the work happens. A note signed during the visit is evidence. A note written from memory a week later is a risk.
3. Log every staff change the day it happens. Zurich and Geneva both want arrivals and departures notified, so the list never drifts.
4. Produce a quarterly report. Staff, incidents, complaints and response times, from live data, filed in the quality file.
5. Test retrieval. Ask for one record, one staff licence and one incident, and time how long each takes.

1. File ______ Owner ______
2. Item ______ Canton rule ______
3. Where it lives ______
4. Last updated ______
5. Retrieval time when tested ______

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Where the record itself is the evidence

Zurich's law requires that the author of every entry is immediately visible and that electronic entries are dated, stored unalterably and retrievable at any time.⁴ Geneva's law allows an electronic record as long as every addition, deletion or change stays detectable and its author and date can be identified.⁵ A system that meets those rules makes the patient record file the easiest of the four to keep.

Questions

How often should we update the staff list?

Whenever someone joins or leaves. Geneva requires arrivals and departures to be announced in writing without delay.

What does a Zurich renewal ask for?

A current organigram for every site, a staffing plan per site, the liability insurance, and changed plans, agreements or criminal record extracts where anything has changed.

Can our patient record be fully electronic?

Yes, both cantons allow it, provided every entry shows its author and date and changes cannot go unseen.

Sources

1. 1Kanton Zürich, Gesundheitsdirektion, 2024Merkblatt Betriebsbewilligung für ambulante ärztliche Institutionen, September 2024Read source
2. 2Kanton Zürich, Gesundheitsdirektion, 2026BetriebsbewilligungRead source
3. 3République et canton de Genève, SILGENEVE, 2025Règlement sur les institutions de santé (RISanté), K 2 05.06, du 9 septembre 2020Read source
4. 4Kanton Zürich, Zürcher Gesetzessammlung, 2026Gesundheitsgesetz (GesG) vom 2. April 2007, LS 810.1, in force from 1 January 2026Read source
5. 5République et canton de Genève, SILGENEVE, 2026Loi sur la santé (LS), K 1 03, du 7 avril 2006Read source

Written by the wai team from Cantonal health authorities of Zurich and Geneva guidance, checked on 16 October 2026. This is guidance, not legal advice. Neither the Zurich Gesundheitsdirektion nor Geneva's department of health endorses wai or any software.