Bertelsmann study: Too little information on the quality of homes

When choosing a nursing home, most people in need of care and their relatives want to be thoroughly informed about the quality of facilities. But in most federal states, according to a study, this is not that easy.

According to a study, most of the federal states only provide consumers with insufficient information about the quality of nursing homes. Important information such as the deployment of personnel is available in all federal states, but remains under lock and key in most federal states, criticized the Bertelsmann Foundation when it published its “White List”. The public often cannot understand which institutions are well positioned. In only six out of 16 countries, consumers received information about the staffing code or serious deficiencies in facilities.

One of the reasons for the lack of transparency is the lack of state regulations. Publication of the test results is not planned in Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony and Thuringia. In Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein there are laws that allow publication, but these are not implemented for various reasons. The information is therefore only generally accessible in Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, the nursing homes themselves published the data. This means they can be seen in the facilities, but are only accessible to a limited extent for consumers.

The Hamburg Foundation cites a positive example: The city provides detailed information on the use of staff in nursing homes and temporary admission bans on the Internet.

Data should be on the Internet

Choosing a nursing home means a life decision and those affected depend on reliable information, emphasized Foundation Board Member Brigitte Mohn. It can also be used to make the good work of many nursing staff publicly visible. “Conversely, however, it should also be possible and permitted to identify the nursing homes where deficits exist.” At the federal level, core results from quality tests have been available for a number of years via the “Pflege-TÜV”, but at the state level things look different, stated foundation expert Johannes Strotbek.

In order to tackle the patchwork quilt and significant information gaps, the Bertelsmann Stiftung advises all federal states to publish relevant data on care quality available to the supervisory authorities centrally on the Internet. Legally secure and specific legal regulations are required for this. “By publishing the data, nursing homes and the authorities responsible for them are fulfilling their accountability to those in need of care and the insured who finance the care,” said Mohn.

For the study of care transparency, the “White List” initiative evaluated the information provided by all relevant state laws and submitted the results to the departments responsible there for review. In addition, questions were asked about the collection of personal information. The “White List” is a project of the Bertelsmann Foundation together with patient and consumer organizations.