For private individuals and relatives
Find the right care for yourself or your relatives
Do you need support at home, a place in a care home or short-term care for a few weeks – for yourself or for a relative? Describe the care need once in the protected portal. Pflege Patienten informs the registered home care services and care providers in the service area that offer this type of care. Posting is free of charge.
What kind of care is needed?
Choose the type of care that comes closest to your situation. Each page explains who the type of care is meant for, which details the request needs and what happens next.
Support at home
A home care service helps in your own home – with personal care, medication or the household.
Care home place
Long-term care in a residential care home when life at home is no longer possible.
Short-term care
Care in a facility for a limited period, for example after a hospital stay.
Day care and night care
Care in a facility during the day or at night; the rest of the time the person lives at home.
Out-of-hospital intensive care
Specialised care outside hospital, for example for ventilation.
Assisted living
Care by a home care service in assisted living or in a shared flat with outpatient care.
Not sure? Choose the type that comes closest – you can still change it later. A care advice service can help you decide. If you are looking for someone else, read the guidance for relatives first.
How a request works
1. Create an account
In the protected portal, free of charge, with your email address.
2. Describe the care need
Three short pages: where and from when, what help is needed, and a few words about the situation.
3. Check the responses
Matching care providers express interest, ask questions or decline.
4. Agree the care
You clarify questions through messages in the portal. You decide with which care provider you agree the care.
The portal explains technical terms where they appear; you do not need to know everything yet. How registration works for private individuals is described on the page Registration.
Who sees your request – and what is only shared later
Only registered home care services and care providers whose service area covers the place you entered and who offer the chosen type of care are notified. The email to them only contains the case number, type of care, service categories, postcode and town, start and a link to the portal.
In the portal they see the details needed for matching, but no name, no address and no date of birth – the request is pseudonymised. Care providers only see your telephone number and email address once you have selected one of them. You can also protect your account with a second factor at sign-in.
Please do not send any diagnoses, names or prescriptions through the contact form on this website; it is only intended for general questions.
If nobody in your region takes part yet
Pflege Patienten is organised regionally. If no matching home care services or care providers are registered for the place you entered yet, nobody is notified of your request and you will not receive any responses. In that case, also take one of the other routes further down this page.
Read more: Regional participation
What does it cost?
Posting is free of charge – registering and posting a request cost private individuals nothing at Pflege Patienten.
‘Free of charge’ refers only to Pflege Patienten, not to the care itself. What the care costs and which services your long-term care insurance fund (Pflegekasse) or health insurance fund covers is something you clarify with the care provider and with your fund.
How to create your account
There is a separate, short way in for private individuals: create a personal account, confirm your email address, then describe your own care need or that of your relative. The account is free of charge. The screenshot shows the German user interface.
What Pflege Patienten cannot promise
Pflege Patienten cannot promise a commitment from a care provider, a free place or a particular waiting time. Nor does the platform decide on the funding or approval of services – that is a matter for your long-term care insurance fund or health insurance fund.
Pflege Patienten is not an emergency or acute care service. In an emergency, call 112; outside surgery hours you can reach the medical on-call service on 116 117.
Other ways to find the right care
A request through Pflege Patienten is one route, not the only one. You can also call home care services and care providers near you directly – or do both at the same time.
Independent advice on the right type of care is available from local care advice services, such as a care support centre, and from the care advice service of your long-term care insurance fund. If the person is in hospital, the hospital's social services are the first point of contact.
Questions from private individuals
Start a care request
Choose the type of care and create your free account in the portal. Answers to further questions are in the help section.