Quality unattainable without care
25.02.2015 22:19
The German Professional Association for Nursing Professions (DBfK) criticizes the fact that the 'Hospital Report 2015', published jointly today by AOK and WIdO, completely excludes the explosive topic of personnel.
“It is remarkable that a 500-page scientific study report focuses on structural change, but does not say a word about the staff working in the hospitals. The employees from numerous professions, equipped with the necessary qualifications and deployed under hopefully motivating conditions, are the most valuable resource that the hospital service provider has - or not," says DBfK speaker Johanna Knüppel today in Berlin. “The reduction in nursing capacity in recent years is now having serious consequences. Nursing tasks are being drastically rationed; this particularly affects health-promoting measures such as prophylaxis, mobilization, preparation for discharge or even informative and advisory discussions. In the medium and long term, this saving in the wrong places will become really expensive for the health system,” Knüppel continued. A European study published in 2014 (Aiken et. al.) have proven the direct connection between the number and qualification level of nursing staff and the morbidity and mortality of hospital patients.
A structural change in the German hospital system is long overdue, as all experts seem to agree. Politicians have developed key points for reform in a federal-state commission and are focusing on quality. But anyone who wants good quality medical care will not be able to construct a care-free hospital. Because care is the actual reason why patients are admitted to hospital, especially as the average age and multimorbidity increase. Diagnostics and therapeutic interventions could also be carried out on an outpatient basis. Every hospital reform, every structural restructuring of the hospital landscape, every quality offensive will come to nothing as long as the perspective of the nursing professions is not significantly involved. Politics has a duty here.