Nursing home scandal in North Rhine-Westphalia: Alarming Sleeping Pentants Bonders!

Nursing home scandal in North Rhine-Westphalia: Alarming Sleeping Pentants Bonders!

The current quality atlas care of the AOK scientific institute (Wido) shows alarming trends in the drug treatment of nursing homes in North Rhine-Westphalia. In an analysis that evaluates the quality indicators for the years 2022 and 2023, it becomes clear that the use of sleep and sedative in this region is above average. According to the AOK billing data, which insure a significant part of the German population, the quality of care suffers and shows hardly any improvements compared to previous years.

It is particularly noticeable that over eleven percent of the nursing home residents in the Rhineland receive permanently appropriate medication. The proportion of permanent prescriptions in the facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia was 12.15 percent in 2023, which is five percentage points above the national average of 7.14 percent. The North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians indicates that 11.43 percent of the residents are affected, which is around 4.3 percentage points above the nationwide value.

regional differences and alarming trends

In the country comparison, the Saarland occupies the top position of the permanent prescriptions with 15.88 percent. While NRW was already above the national average before 2023, there is a slight decline in regulations. In 2017, 13.78 percent of nursing home residents regularly received these funds in North Rhine-Westphalia, while only 8.17 percent were affected across Germany. This development illustrates a growing problem that requires urgent need for action.

dr. Antje Schwinger, an expert in this area, emphasizes that these medication should be prescribed for a maximum of four weeks in order to avoid serious health risks such as dependency and anxiety. When taking medicines such as benzodiazepines and Z substances, serious consequences such as increased risk of falling, depression and an overall deteriorated quality of life can occur.

quality of care: a structural problem

The results from the nursing report 2023, which is based on the billing data of 97 statutory health insurance companies, illustrate that the problem is regionally strong. In the most worst-off quarter of the regions, 9.9 percent of the problematic permanent prescriptions of sleep and sedative received a maximum of 4.7 percent in the best quarter. This data underline urgency for improvement in medical and nursing care.

In addition, the Medical Service BUND shows in the nursing quality reports published every two years that the pandeme-related restrictions in 2021 have led to a high number of quality tests in care facilities. So far, the data from 2023 have still been in the evaluation, but the published quality reporting represents the challenges created by the Corona pandemic.

The results from the quality atlas and the various nursing reports show a worrying image of the quality of care in Germany, especially in the western federal states. In order to improve the situation, structural change in nursing care and responsible use of prescriptions is urgently necessary. Quality indicators should stimulate action in order to enable those in need of care to have a better life.

For further information and detailed statistics, we refer to the Quality atlas, Pflege-rort 2023 as well as the Pflege-quality service BUND .

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OrtNordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
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