In short and in plain language
When someone leaves hospital, the family needs help fast. Then they look for a care service.
This post shows how you can build an advice page for this. It is a page with tips for families.
The page explains the way from hospital to home. A checklist helps on the day of discharge.
A short call-back form is important. It asks for name, phone and the day of discharge. It does not ask about the illness.
We build this page for your care service.
The news comes from the hospital: father will be discharged the day after tomorrow, and at home he will need help with washing, with changing dressings and with his tablets. From that moment, relatives are looking for a home care service, and they are working against the clock. The law sets the frame: hospital treatment includes discharge management, and the hospital may prescribe home nursing care as well as dressings, therapeutic remedies and aids for up to seven days (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). What comes after that, which documents belong in the bag on discharge day and how to reach a care service quickly is what a good advice page should answer within a few minutes. This article shows how a care service builds an advice page on hospital discharge: with the statutory deadlines, a checklist for discharge day, a process for the first seven days and a call-back route that works without a diagnosis.
Key takeaways
- Under discharge management, the hospital may prescribe home nursing care as well as dressings, therapeutic remedies and aids for up to seven days (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). The advice page explains that the GP practice issues the follow-up prescription after that.
- Hospitals counted around 17.7 million treatment cases in 2025 with an average length of stay of 7.0 days (Federal Statistical Office). On average, that leaves about one week to arrange care at home.
- On discharge day, patients receive the discharge letter and the necessary prescriptions, and a medication plan if at least three medicines are prescribed at once (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). A checklist on the page turns this into a list to tick off.
- Without care level 2 to 5, basic care and domestic help for up to four weeks per case of illness (Section 37 subsection 1a SGB V) and short-term care for up to eight weeks a year (Section 39c SGB V, Section 42 SGB XI) can follow a hospital stay.
- If a care level is applied for while still in hospital and an assessment is needed for further care, it has to take place no later than the fifth working day after the application arrives (Section 18a subsection 5 SGB XI).
- The call-back route asks for name, phone number and expected discharge date, but not for a diagnosis: health data is specially protected (Art. 9 subsection 1 GDPR).
Discharge is a search trigger with a deadline
Hospitals in Germany counted around 17.7 million treatment cases in 2025 (Federal Statistical Office). The average length of stay was 7.0 days (Federal Statistical Office). On average, then, roughly one week lies between admission and discharge, and within that week it has to become clear how things will continue at home. For relatives this means they are not looking for a care service at leisure with a comparison list, but between visiting hours, work and phone calls with the hospital social services team.
In Lower Saxony there were around 1.56 million treatment cases in 2025, with an average length of stay of 6.8 days (Federal Statistical Office). On the other side of discharge are the home care services: in December 2023, 1.1 million people in need of care across Germany were looked after at home together with or entirely by home care and support services (Federal Statistical Office). Anyone who needs a care service for the first time after a hospital stay often knows neither the terms nor the procedures. The page therefore uses the words that come up on the ward: discharge, prescription, discharge letter, social services.
An advice page on hospital discharge picks up this search. It explains in plain language what the hospital has to do, what relatives should clarify themselves and when the care service comes in. At the end there is no generic contact form but a call-back route that asks for the expected discharge date. A read explanation becomes an enquiry with a date, and your service can judge early whether it can take on the care. The page belongs in the section for relatives on your care website and is linked from the home page and from the service page for home care.
How this differs from related pages
What hospital discharge management has to deliver
Discharge management is not a voluntary service of the hospital but part of hospital treatment. Its purpose is to support care across sectors during the transition to the time after hospital (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). Insured persons have a right to support for discharge management from their health insurance fund, and where help from long-term care insurance may apply, health and long-term care insurance funds work together (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). For relatives this is the most important sentence on the whole page: they do not have to organise follow-up care alone.
Discharge management requires that the patient is informed beforehand and consents; information and consent must be given in writing or electronically (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). The details are set out in a framework agreement between the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the German Hospital Federation. Under it, the health insurance fund, together with the hospital, organises the necessary care in good time before discharge and contacts, for example, home care services for this purpose (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). The patient keeps the right to choose: it has to be respected when the discharge plan is implemented (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management).
- Discharge letter: on the day of discharge, the patient receives a discharge letter, at least a provisional one (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). It lists diagnoses, medicines, services arranged and a phone number for queries, among other things.
- Prescriptions: if home nursing care, therapeutic remedies or aids are needed, the patient receives the prescription no later than the day of discharge (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management).
- Medication plan: anyone discharged with at least three medicines prescribed at the same time receives a medication plan (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management).
- Queries: for the providers continuing treatment, the hospital gives a phone number at which someone from discharge management can be reached at least Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management).
- Informing the care service: if home nursing care or care benefits in kind were interrupted by the hospital stay, the hospital informs the previous care service about the discharge date (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management).
On the advice page these points belong as information, not as an accusation. Relatives sometimes experience discharge day as less orderly than the agreement describes it. A factual wording helps more than any criticism: "Ask the social services team or the discharge management on the ward whether the discharge plan includes a care service, and feel free to give them our name." This keeps the page neutral, and your service is named where the decision is made.
The seven days: what the hospital may prescribe
Where it is necessary for care immediately after discharge, the hospital may prescribe itself. For medicines, that is a pack with the smallest pack size code. The other services from the catalogue of prescriptions, including home nursing care as well as dressings, therapeutic remedies and aids (Section 92 subsection 1 SGB V), may be prescribed by the hospital for a period of up to seven days, and the hospital may certify incapacity for work (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V). This deadline is the most important number on the whole page because it sets the rhythm of the first week.
After the seven days a follow-up prescription is needed, as a rule from the GP practice. For patients with complex care needs, a prompt appointment with a GP or specialist continuing treatment should be arranged (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). How a prescription for home nursing care is issued at the practice and approved by the fund is explained in detail in the article Doctor-prescribed home nursing care: explaining it online. The discharge page links there and sticks to the short version itself.
| When | Who acts | What happens | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| During the stay | Hospital, social services, health insurance fund | Discharge plan, consent, contact with care service and fund | Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V, Framework Agreement on Discharge Management |
| Discharge day | Hospital | Discharge letter, prescriptions, medication plan for at least three medicines | Framework Agreement on Discharge Management |
| Day 1 to 7 | Care service | Care based on the hospital prescription | Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V |
| From day 8 | GP practice | Follow-up prescription if care is still needed | Prescription by the contracted doctor |
On the page, this rhythm can be shown as a timeline: hospital, discharge day, day 1 to 7, GP. Below it, one sentence names the consequence: book the appointment at the GP practice in the first week after discharge so that care does not break off on day eight. This is not a legal obligation for relatives, but it is the simplest way to avoid a gap that otherwise only becomes visible when the nurse is at the door and the prescription has run out.
Which benefits can follow a hospital stay
Relatives rarely ask about sections of the law; they ask who pays for what. The page therefore sorts the possible benefits by the situation at home. Whether a care level 2 to 5 already exists often decides the matter: several benefits of the health insurance fund apply precisely when it does not. Discharge management explicitly covers all services needed for care after hospital treatment, including household help and short-term care as well as the necessary benefits of long-term care insurance (Section 39 subsection 1a SGB V).
Home nursing care
Basic care, treatment care and domestic help at home if this avoids or shortens a hospital stay. This entitlement lasts up to four weeks per case of illness, longer in justified exceptional cases (Section 37 subsection 1 SGB V). Treatment care to secure the aim of medical treatment is not bound by this limit (Section 37 subsection 2 SGB V).
Support care without a care level
In case of serious illness, especially after a hospital stay, insured persons without care level 2 to 5 receive the necessary basic care and domestic help, also for up to four weeks per case of illness (Section 37 subsection 1a SGB V).
Household help
If running the household is not possible after the hospital stay and no person in the household can step in: without care level 2 to 5 up to four weeks, with a child under twelve up to 26 weeks (Section 38 SGB V).
Short-term care without a care level
If support care at home is not enough, the health insurance fund provides short-term care for a transitional period without care level 2 to 5 (Section 39c SGB V), limited to eight weeks per calendar year and an annual maximum amount (Section 42 SGB XI).
Transitional care in hospital
If follow-up care cannot be arranged, or only with considerable effort, transitional care for a maximum of ten days may be an option, in a cross-sector care facility or at another hospital site (Section 39e SGB V).
Care level by fast track
If the care level is applied for during the hospital stay and an assessment is needed for further care, it takes place no later than the fifth working day after the application is received (Section 18a subsection 5 SGB XI).
Two limitations belong with this so that the page does not raise false expectations. Home nursing care is only available insofar as a person living in the household cannot provide the care to the required extent (Section 37 subsection 3 SGB V). And the fund decides on each of these benefits case by case, not the care service. The page explains rights and routes; it does not promise a benefit. Household help is likewise only available if no person in the household can take over the tasks (Section 38 SGB V).
No promises on behalf of the fund
Applying for a care level while still in hospital
Long-term care insurance only counts a need for care that is permanent, expected to last at least six months (Section 14 subsection 1 SGB XI). If that becomes apparent, it is worth applying for a care level during the stay. If the applicant is in hospital and there are indications that an assessment in the facility is necessary to secure further care, the assessment has to take place without delay, no later than the fifth working day after the application reaches the long-term care insurance fund (Section 18a subsection 5 SGB XI). This deadline can be shortened further by regional agreements (Section 18a subsection 5 SGB XI). In the fast-track procedure, the recommendation initially only has to establish whether the person is in need of care and whether at least the requirements for care level 2 are met (Section 18a subsection 7 SGB XI); the full assessment follows later.
The application starts a second deadline that relatives should know about: after receiving a first application, the long-term care insurance fund has to offer a specific counselling appointment that takes place within two weeks of receipt at the latest, or issue a counselling voucher (Section 7b SGB XI). The advice page on discharge explains this in two sentences and refers to a separate page on the application for everything else. How that page is built is shown in the article Applying for a care level: the guide page that works.
The documents: a checklist for discharge day
On discharge day a lot of paperwork arrives at once. A checklist on the advice page, which can also be printed, helps relatives check that everything is there before leaving the ward. At the same time it is the list your care service needs at the first visit. It follows what the framework agreement provides and adds what is needed in practice at home. Not all of it still comes on paper: since 1 July 2026, prescriptions for home nursing care have to be issued electronically unless this is technically impossible in the individual case (Section 360 subsection 5 SGB V). The checklist therefore asks for the prescription itself, not for a particular form.
- Discharge letter, provisional or final, with the hospital phone number for queries
- Medication plan if at least three medicines are prescribed at the same time, plus the information on medicines handed over
- Prescription for home nursing care, electronic or on paper, with the measures prescribed and the period
- Prescriptions for dressings, therapeutic remedies and aids, for example for wound care or a walking frame
- Certificate of incapacity for work if the discharged person is employed
- Notice of a care level or confirmation that the application has been submitted
- Health insurance card plus a lasting power of attorney or proof of legal guardianship, if available
- Appointment at the GP practice within the first seven days
The checklist appears as a real list in the text of the page and additionally as a print version that can be printed straight from the browser. Anyone offering it as a PDF makes sure the document is accessible; how to do that is shown in the article Accessible PDF downloads on a care service website, and the requirements for the page itself are summarised on the page on accessibility for care websites. A checklist does not replace a conversation, but it makes it shorter: anyone who can say on the phone which prescription exists and for which period gets a binding answer faster.
The discharge day as a process on the page
Next to the checklist, the page needs a process that shows what happens when. It answers the question behind almost every enquiry: what do we have to do now, and what does the care service take on? A numbered process in five steps is enough. On the page it could read like this:
- During the stay: talk to the social services team or the discharge management on the ward, give consent to discharge management and ask what care the discharge plan provides for.
- As soon as the discharge date is set: call the care service or request a call-back, give the expected discharge date and clarify from when a first visit is possible.
- On discharge day: check the documents against the checklist, compare medicines with the medication plan and note the hospital call-back number.
- Day 1 to 7: the care service provides care based on the hospital prescription and reports back what else is needed at home.
- Before the seven days are up: the GP practice issues the follow-up prescription if needed; agree with the care service how it reaches the health insurance fund.
One point deserves a paragraph of its own: the weekend. For queries from providers continuing treatment, hospital discharge management must also be reachable on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). So your service can clarify open questions about the prescription at weekends too. What the page says about your own availability at weekends, by contrast, has to match exactly what the service delivers: mention an on-call service only if it exists, and state call-back times only as they appear in the rota.
The call-back route: short and without a diagnosis
The goal of the page is the call-back. The form for it is short and only asks for what is needed for the first conversation. Diagnoses, findings or medicines do not belong in it: processing health data is prohibited in principle unless one of the statutory exceptions applies (Art. 9 subsection 1 GDPR), and personal data has to be limited to what is necessary for the purpose (Art. 5 subsection 1 GDPR). The phone call clarifies the medical situation, not the form. How such a form is built cleanly from a technical and legal point of view is described in the article on secure forms on care websites.
- Name of the person receiving the call-back
- Phone number and a time window in which they can be reached
- Expected discharge date, even as an approximate figure
- Postcode or town where care is needed, so the catchment area can be checked
- a free text field with a note not to enter medical details there
- a reference to the privacy notice and to what the details are used for
Next to the form is the phone number, as a tappable link on smartphones. Anyone reading the page in a hospital corridor or in the car park is reading it on a phone; how it stays readable and usable there is described in the article Optimising the care website on mobile for relatives. Above the form there is a promise about the call-back time that the service actually keeps. A tight deadline that cannot be met in everyday work costs more trust than an honest statement such as "on the next working day". What forms with a health context need under data protection law is bundled on the page Privacy for care services.
When no place is available
Not every care service can take on every enquiry. With short-notice discharges in particular, an honest answer matters more than a quick promise. The page can carry a dated note on the current situation, such as "New clients possible from mid-month, as of: …", and still offer the call-back. A service that cannot take anyone on right now does not lose the enquiry if it offers a waiting list; what that looks like is shown in the article At capacity: turning a no into a waiting list.
For relatives, one sentence that the law supports is a relief: the health insurance fund organises care after discharge together with the hospital and also contacts home care services for this (Framework Agreement on Discharge Management). If care at home is not yet sufficient, short-term care or transitional care may be an option. The page names these routes without rating other services and so remains helpful even when your service cannot take on the care at the moment.
Keeping the page up to date
An advice page with legal references ages. The Framework Agreement on Discharge Management is now available in the version of the 14th amendment (German Hospital Federation), and long-term care insurance benefits also change regularly. Each legal statement therefore carries the date on which it was last checked, and the page gets a fixed place in the maintenance plan. What to do on advice pages when reforms are announced is covered in the article Care reform in draft: updating advice pages correctly. On request, we take care of ongoing upkeep as part of website maintenance.
Whether the page works can be measured without monitoring visitors. A hidden field in the call-back form that sends the reason "discharge" is enough; in the inbox you can then count how many enquiries came through this page and how many of them led to a first visit. Which metrics are suitable for this is described in the article Measuring a care website: the metrics that matter.
Sources and statutes
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