Home care (outpatient)

Find a home care service for care at home

Washing in the morning, compression stockings in the evening, tablets twice a day – and it no longer works alone? A home care service comes to the home. State once when and with what help is needed; the registered home care services in the service area are notified.

Start a care request

What a home care service helps with

Home care services help with personal hygiene, eating and moving around, provide medical treatment care prescribed by a doctor, such as giving medication or changing dressings, and on request support the household and provide companionship.

You do not have to request all of the care: if personal care is already arranged and only help with medication is missing, request exactly that service.

What the request for care at home asks

Place of care

Postcode and town. Home care services travel within a fixed service area – this decides who receives your request.

Weekdays and times of day

For each service you tick in a grid on which weekdays and at what time of day help is needed.

Practical wishes

For example a visit before a certain time or notes on access to the home – briefly and in your own words.

Start

Immediately, from a date such as the day of discharge, or still open.

How the home care service comes to the home

1. State the care need

In the portal you choose home care and enter the services required with their times.

2. Services check

Matching home care services see services, times and place and check whether the visits fit their rounds.

3. Receive responses

A service can express interest in all or only some services, ask a question or decline.

4. Agree the care

You select the service. You discuss the details and the care contract directly with it.

When two services share the care

If two services express interest in different services, you can select both – one for personal care, the other for domestic assistance. On your request, agreed and still open services remain visible separately.

Is help at home not enough?

If the visits become too many or care during the day is missing, day care is worth a look. If care at home is no longer possible, a care home place is an option.

Questions about a home care service

Yes. In the portal you edit your request, drop services that are no longer needed or end the request, for example once you have arranged the care elsewhere. If no takeover has been agreed for any service after 14 days, the request is closed as 'not placed'; on day 11 you receive an advance warning.

If a care provider expresses interest, asks a question or declines, you see this on your request in the portal; if you wish, an email points it out. Messages themselves are never included in emails. A response is not yet a commitment: a takeover is only agreed once you have selected a care provider and both sides have confirmed.

Yes. Care providers do not need a name for matching: the request is posted in pseudonymised form – without the name, address or date of birth of the person who needs care. The details of the care need are still health data and are therefore kept only in the protected portal. Please do not write names or addresses in free-text fields either.

Posting is free of charge – registering and posting a request cost private individuals nothing at Pflege Patienten. This only concerns the platform: what the care itself 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.

Request a home care service

Posting is free of charge. In the protected portal you state the services, weekdays and times of day.