Guides: answers that help with the next decision.
Organising care raises many questions. Find orientation, practical preparation and clear explanations.
Which question is on your mind?
Choose a topic. Without a choice you see all guides.
Care after hospital: what matters now?
Care after a hospital stay · Organising care for relatives
Which questions to settle with those involved before discharge.
How do I find a short-term care place?
Finding the right care · Care after a hospital stay · Understanding costs and benefits
Which details care homes need and who may cover the costs.
How do I find a suitable home care service?
Finding the right care · Organising care for relatives
What to look for in services, service area and the first conversation.
How do I prepare a care handover?
Care after a hospital stay · For hospitals and care providers
For hospitals and social services: checklists for the request and the handover.
How do I handle care requests?
For hospitals and care providers
For home care services and care providers: a practical process.
What matters in discharge management software?
Care after a hospital stay · For hospitals and care providers
For hospitals: criteria for introduction, reach, data protection and interfaces.
What does the social space budget 2027 mean?
Understanding costs and benefits · Organising care for relatives
What the draft Long-Term Care Reorganisation Act provides for the relief amount and household help.
Which care level could apply?
Understanding costs and benefits · Organising care for relatives
What the care level means, how the assessment works and where you can estimate your situation yourself without obligation.
Well prepared for the next conversation
These points help in care counselling, in talks with providers and in the care request assistant. The list stays on your device.
You apply to the long-term care insurance fund.
For example personal care, help in the household or supervision
Clarify a power of attorney or legal guardianship if you act for a relative
For example at a care support centre or the care insurance fund
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News
Alongside the guides, we explain legislative changes and new developments in long-term care and discharge management under “News” – each with sources and editorial status.
Read more: To the news
How the guides are structured
Each guide answers its question briefly at the start. Steps, a checklist and a section on the limits of the guide follow. We name legal bases with a link to the statute.
The guides are editorial information. The linked sources were checked by the editorial team. The guides do not replace personal advice from the long-term care insurance fund, the health insurance fund, care counselling (for example at a care support centre), or your doctor.
Professional basis and status
Show sources and status
Pflege Patienten editorial team.
We deliberately do not state benefit amounts because they change. Your long-term care insurance fund or health insurance fund can tell you the current amounts.
- Section 39 SGB V (German Social Code, Book V) – hospital treatment and discharge management (German) Statutes at gesetze-im-internet.de
- Section 7a SGB XI – care counselling (German) Statutes at gesetze-im-internet.de
- Federal Ministry of Health (German) Further information
Editorial status: 11 October 2026. The linked sources of the guides were checked by the editorial team.
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