Hospitals should be obliged to work with a sufficient number of nursing staff. This is the aim of the draft law “on the assessment of nursing staff in hospitals and on the adaptation of further regulations in the hospital system and in digitization” (Hospital Care Relief Act, KHPflEG), which the Federal Cabinet passed today. For this purpose, specifications are made for the assessment of nursing staff in the hospital. The draft law also includes rules on hospital financing and digital healthcare.
Federal Minister of Health Prof. Karl Lauterbach explains:
“We need a rethink in the hospital industry. Nursing staff are extremely stressed employees. Only those who pay them well, compensate for overtime, and have their wards well staffed will keep nursing staff on the labor market or recruit new ones. Adequate staffing in hospital nursing is essential, both for the quality of patient care and the work situation of nursing staff in hospitals. This will be ensured by the new relief law.”
The content of the law in detail:
Nursing staff assessment in the hospital
The aim of the law is to improve the nursing situation in hospitals in the medium term by calculating and enforcing ideal staffing for the wards. For this purpose, an instrument for personnel assessment (PPR 2.0) is to be used, which was developed by all those involved as part of the Concerted Action on Nursing. The PPR 2.0 is to be introduced in three stages:
The test phase is scheduled to start on January 1, 2023. Here the PPR 2.0 is subjected to the practical test. The test phase takes place in a representative selection of hospitals in normal wards and in pediatrics. On this basis, the hospitals are given specifications for staffing in a legal ordinance. If a hospital has a relief collective agreement with binding specifications for the minimum staffing on wards with beds, the application of the PPR 2.0 can be waived. From 2025, the personnel assessment will then be sharpened and sanctioned.
Further regulations for the hospital sector
In addition, the draft law provides for the following regulations in the hospital sector:
- Budget negotiations: In practice, the prospective budget negotiations often take place with an increasing delay of more than one to two years. In order to accelerate the budget negotiations, deadlines for various procedural steps and automatic action by the arbitration board are specified. Administrative simplifications are being made with the draft law with regard to the hospital accounting verification procedure. The structural check of hospitals by the medical services is also being further developed.
- The procedure for transmitting hospital data to the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK), on the basis of which the remuneration catalogs are calculated annually, is being further developed.
- Clarifications and specifications are made with regard to the administrative procedure and the processing and approval of applications for the Hospital Future Fund. In addition, the evaluation of the hospital future fund is to be adapted and further developed.
digital healthcare
The draft law will also further develop and adjust digital medical and nursing care. In particular, this involves making digital applications more user-friendly and increasing the spread of central applications in the telematics infrastructure. This includes, for example, regulations on the use of prescription data in the supply process or on enabling simple identification procedures in pharmacies. At the same time, competition-distorting practices that currently exist due to restrictions imposed by providers and manufacturers of information technology systems within the framework of the telematics infrastructure will be ended.
The government draft approved today by the Federal Cabinet will now be forwarded to the Bundesrat and the German Bundestag, where they will be discussed.