In short and in plain language
Some wounds take a long time to heal. They are called chronic wounds. A doctor can prescribe care at home for them.
Some care services specialize in these wounds. They have a contract with the health insurers for this. Their nurses have done extra training.
The care service can show this on its website. The page says who looks after the wounds. It also says what training this person has.
Doctors find out on the page how to send the order. This order is called a prescription.
The care service must not promise that every wound will heal. We help build this page.
People who need a chronic wound treated at home rarely look for just any care service. Family doctors, hospital social services and relatives look for a service that is qualified for this kind of care and holds a matching contract with the health insurers. The German home nursing care guideline (HKP-Richtlinie) lists a separate benefit for it, number 31a (G-BA), and expects it to be provided by a specialized provider. What "specialized" means is set out in the framework recommendations under Section 132a(1) SGB V: every registered nurse who treats these wounds independently needs additional training of at least 84 teaching units of 45 minutes each (GKV framework recommendations). If a care website only lists "wound care" somewhere between medication and compression stockings, practices and relatives learn none of this. This article shows how a dedicated service page presents the contract, the qualifications and the specialist lead in a verifiable way, how practices can send their prescription from that page, and where the German Therapeutic Products Advertising Act (HWG) draws the line.
Key takeaways
- Specialized wound care under no. 31a of the HKP guideline requires a contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V that sets out the requirements (GKV framework recommendations). The service page names this contract as its first piece of evidence.
- Every nurse who treats chronic wounds independently needs at least 84 teaching units of 45 minutes of additional training (GKV framework recommendations), and the responsible nurse in charge needs 168 (GKV framework recommendations).
- Qualifications appear on the page exactly as the certificate shows them: scope, completion, role. False or deceptive statements about ability or authorization are misleading (Section 5 UWG).
- Healing cannot be promised: under the HKP guideline the goal may also be to prevent deterioration or to relieve symptoms (G-BA). Wound photos and thank-you letters fall under the limits of Section 11 HWG.
- The section for practices lists the required prescription details, a sending route without a diagnosis field and the process with a wound assessment at least every 4 weeks (GKV framework recommendations).
What specialized wound care under no. 31a means
The guideline of the Federal Joint Committee on prescribing home nursing care, the HKP guideline, sets out in its schedule which measures doctors may prescribe as home nursing care. Chronic and hard-to-heal wounds have their own entry there: for this kind of care, the benefit under number 31a is to be prescribed (G-BA). The statutory basis is Section 37(7) SGB V. Under it, the Federal Joint Committee regulates the details of caring for chronic and hard-to-heal wounds, and that care may also take place in specialized facilities at a suitable location outside the patient's home (SGB V).
The guideline itself defines what counts as chronic. A chronic wound is not expected to heal without complications within a maximum of 12 weeks under appropriate therapy (G-BA). Initial and follow-up prescriptions each cover up to 4 weeks (G-BA). The benefit includes applying and changing dressings, monitoring wound healing, disinfection and cleaning, flushing wound fistulas and, where needed, guidance on disease-specific and wound-specific measures, in close coordination with the treating doctor.
Care of chronic and hard-to-heal wounds under this number should be provided by a provider that has specialized in the care of chronic and hard-to-heal wounds.
Home nursing care is a health insurance benefit and does not depend on a care level. In December 2023, 1.1 million people in need of long-term care were cared for at home together with or entirely by home care services (Federal Statistical Office). Someone with a chronic wound may belong to that group, but does not have to. For people without a care level who have not dealt with a care service before, the wound care page may be the very first contact.
Who counts as a specialized provider is described in the framework recommendations that the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) and the umbrella organizations of care services issue jointly under Section 132a(1) SGB V. In the version of 18 December 2023 (GKV framework recommendations), Section 6 covers the requirements for specialized providers caring for chronic and hard-to-heal wounds. The sentence that matters most for the website is in paragraph 2: specialized providers need a contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V that sets out the individual requirements for specialized wound care (GKV framework recommendations).
Framework recommendations are not a law, but they take effect through the contracts. Their contents must form the basis of the contracts under Section 132a(4) SGB V (SGB V), and those contracts are concluded jointly and uniformly by the regional associations of health insurers and the substitute funds with the providers (SGB V). For the website this means: the nationwide framework explains what the evidence means, and the details are in the contract for your federal state. Describe on the page only what your own contract actually covers.
A note on scope: the Nursing Competence Act extends what registered nurses may do on their own responsibility, including for chronic wounds. What that means for service pages is covered in the article on the Nursing Competence Act 2026. This article deals with the other side of the same service: the contract and the qualifications that allow a service to work as a specialized provider, and how to show both.
Three pieces of evidence carry the page
A wound care page does not convince referrers with adjectives but with details they can place. Section 6 of the framework recommendations even supplies the structure. Three building blocks belong in the page header, visible without scrolling:
Care contract
A contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V that sets out the requirements for specialized wound care. The page states that it exists and which area it covers, not the text of the contract.
Qualified nurses
Additional training of at least 84 teaching units of 45 minutes (GKV framework recommendations) for every nurse who treats chronic wounds independently, completed with an exam and a certificate.
Specialist lead
A responsible nurse in charge or a designated specialist lead with additional training of at least 168 teaching units (GKV framework recommendations) who carries the professional responsibility internally.
The order follows the questions a family doctor asks. The first is: may this service take on care under no. 31a as a specialized provider? The second: who will visit my patient? The third: who can I reach if the wound gets worse? Only after that do service area, availability and process matter.
All three statements are solid because the service has to prove them anyway. On request, the service must show the responsible health insurer that it meets the requirements by providing suitable documents, according to Section 6(15) of the framework recommendations for example proof of qualification or extracts from employment contracts with job description and working hours. What the insurer can check, the website may name, as long as the page claims no more than the documents show.
84 and 168 teaching units: what the numbers stand for
The framework recommendations distinguish two levels. In addition to the training for the role of responsible nurse in charge, the responsible nurse in charge of a specialized service needs specific additional training in the care of chronic and hard-to-heal wounds of at least 168 teaching units of 45 minutes (GKV framework recommendations). All registered nurses who take on wound care independently need at least 84 teaching units of 45 minutes (GKV framework recommendations). In clock hours, that is 63 hours (GKV framework recommendations) for the nurses and 126 hours (GKV framework recommendations) for the responsible nurse in charge.
If the responsible nurse in charge does not meet these requirements, the service can designate other registered nurses as specialist leads. They must meet the requirements for the responsible nurse in charge, except for the training for that role itself, and they carry professional responsibility and supervision for wound care internally. This is exactly the person who belongs on the page as the contact for practices.
Both levels end with a passed exam. After that, a certificate is issued that lists the individual modules and their scope and has to be submitted to the contracting health insurer. For the website, this is the obvious source: the name of the course, its scope and the year of completion are all on paper. For the level that applies to all nurses working independently, the framework recommendations specify the minimum content as topic blocks:
- Fundamentals: physiology and anatomy of the skin, vascular system, wounds and wound healing, microbiology and hygiene
- Conditions: vascular diseases, chronic venous insufficiency and leg ulcers, peripheral arterial disease, lymphatic disorders, diabetic foot syndrome, pressure ulcers and their prevention
- Local therapy: the wound treatment process
- Supportive measures: compression therapy, pain assessment and pain management, nutrition
- Framework conditions: wound documentation, quality assurance in wound therapy and interface management
This list works as a template for a short paragraph on the service page. Writing that the team is trained in compression therapy, pain assessment and wound documentation describes content a practice can place. Writing "wound experts" describes nothing anyone could check.
| Role in the service | Requirement under Section 6 of the framework recommendations | What the service page can show |
|---|---|---|
| Responsible nurse in charge | Training under Section 1(7) plus additional wound care training of at least 168 units | Name, role, title and scope of the additional training |
| Specialist lead instead of the responsible nurse in charge | Same requirements, without the training for the role of nurse in charge | Name, role, availability for practices, deputy |
| Nurses providing wound care independently | Nursing qualification plus additional wound care training of at least 84 units | A statement that qualified nurses handle all wound care visits, if the roster actually provides for that |
| All nurses involved in wound care | Induction, structured onboarding and 10 hours of further training per calendar year | A note on annual, product-neutral further training |
Annual further training is more than an obligation. It amounts to 10 hours per calendar year and per employee, must cover subject-specific topics and must be product-neutral (GKV framework recommendations). For applicants, that is a concrete argument: anyone who wants to develop in wound care can see that further training is a fixed part of the job. How to present such offers on the careers page is covered in the article on employee benefits on the nursing careers page.
Describing qualifications so they hold up
The difference between a convincing and a risky service page is often a single word. A commercial practice is misleading if it contains false or otherwise deceptive statements about, among other things, the ability, status or authorization of the business (Section 5 UWG). For its own field, the Therapeutic Products Advertising Act also lists false or deceptive statements about training, ability or success as an example of misleading advertising (Section 3 HWG). Statements about qualifications on a care website are therefore not a matter of style. They have to be true, and they have to be specific enough that nobody can read more into them than the documents support.
| Instead of | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "Our wound experts" | "Our nurses in wound care have completed additional training of at least 84 teaching units." | Scope instead of a title, only if it applies to every nurse deployed |
| "Certified wound care service" | "Specialized provider with a contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V for chronic and hard-to-heal wounds" | The certificate under Section 6 belongs to the nurse's training, not to the service |
| "We heal your wound" | "We care for chronic wounds as prescribed by your doctor and coordinate care closely with your practice." | No promise of healing, see Section 3 HWG |
| "Experienced specialist lead" | "Specialist lead: name, registered nurse with additional wound care training (168 units)" | Verifiable, with a person and a scope |
| "State-of-the-art dressings" | "We use the dressings your doctor prescribes." | No product advertising, the prescription names the material |
For names, the rule is: only with the consent of the person named, and the details are updated as soon as someone leaves. A name on the service page that has not been on the team for months does more harm than no name at all. If keeping the page up to date cannot be organized reliably, a job title with a direct line is the better choice.
A number of staff is also a claim. "Five qualified nurses" only helps if the number is correct and kept current. Relatives care more about a statement that qualified nurses handle wound care visits, provided the roster actually works that way. Practices, in turn, read the role of the contact person more closely than any number.
Where the Therapeutic Products Advertising Act draws the line
The Therapeutic Products Advertising Act does not only apply to medicines. It also covers advertising for procedures and treatments insofar as the advertising statement relates to detecting, eliminating or relieving illnesses, suffering, physical injuries or pathological complaints in humans (Section 1 HWG). A wound care page almost inevitably falls under it. The basic rules for care websites, from the legal notice to advertising limits, are in the article legally compliant care website: imprint and HWG, which lists "We heal every chronic wound" as a negative example. For the wound care page, three points matter most.
No promise of healing
Advertising is misleading in particular if it falsely creates the impression that success can be expected with certainty (Section 3 HWG). The HKP guideline supplies the counterargument itself: the goal of the benefit is wound healing, but the goal may also be to prevent deterioration and relieve symptoms if healing is likely to be ruled out given the individual situation (G-BA). Saying this on the page does not make it weaker, it makes it more honest. Relatives of people receiving palliative care read exactly that.
No wound photos as advertising
Outside professional circles, advertising may not use images that show changes to the human body caused by illness or injury in an abusive, repulsive or misleading way (Section 11 HWG). Before-and-after photos of chronic wounds come close to that line. They also show health data of the person depicted, which is protected as a special category of personal data (Article 9 GDPR). The photo documentation that Section 6 provides for with the patient's consent serves the care, not the website. Better choices are pictures of the team, of a nurse preparing a dressing change or of a consultation, without a visible wound. What real photos can do for a care website is covered in the article on authentic photos instead of stock images.
No thank-you letters as proof of success
Statements by third parties, such as thank-you letters, and accounts of medical histories are also restricted in advertising to the general public if they are presented in an abusive, repulsive or misleading way (Section 11 HWG). A quote from a relative saying the wound had closed after three weeks is therefore poor evidence on the service page. Reviews belong on the review platform, not on the service page as a healing story.
The section for practices is public
The referrer section: send a prescription directly
Wound care under no. 31a starts with a doctor's prescription, so the route to the service page often runs through referrers. The prescription comes from the family doctor or specialist practice, and after a hospital stay often from the hospital as part of discharge management. The framework recommendations explicitly include the specialized provider in transition and discharge management, together with the hospital, rehabilitation facility, health insurer and the contracted doctors involved (GKV framework recommendations). How a page for hospital social services is generally structured is shown in the article intensive care website: winning hospitals as referral partners. For relatives around discharge day there is the hospital discharge advice page.
For wound care, the referrer section does not need its own subpage, but it does need its own bar on the service page. It addresses practices directly and lists what a complete prescription contains. For no. 31a, the HKP guideline requires the wound type, location, length, width, depth and, where possible, the grade of the wound as well as the dressings to be used; dressing change intervals are to be stated depending on the wound situation and the material (G-BA). If any of these details is missing, care starts with a follow-up call. If the list is on the service page, prescriptions arrive complete more often.
- Contact person for practices with role and direct line, plus a named deputy
- Ways to send the prescription: phone for coordination, fax or, if available, the service's KIM address in the telematics infrastructure
- The required details of a no. 31a prescription as a short list
- Service area with towns or postal codes
- The time within which the service responds to an inquiry, as it can actually deliver
- A note on cooperating with a care service that already looks after the patient
The bar needs a "Send prescription" button. Behind it there should not be a general contact form with a free text field into which practices type diagnoses. Details about the wound are health data (Article 9 GDPR). If the service offers an upload, it needs encrypted transfer, a clearly described purpose and privacy information for exactly this route. Often a call-back form asking for the practice name, phone number and preferred call-back time is enough, and the prescription arrives through the channel the practice already uses. How such forms are built is described on the page privacy for care websites.
One thing explicitly does not belong in the referrer section: any kind of benefit for referrals. The specialized provider may not accept or be promised monetary benefits from a supplier for referring prescriptions for dressings, and the rules of Section 128 SGB V on prohibited cooperation with contracted doctors apply accordingly (GKV framework recommendations). Vouchers, gifts or sponsored evenings have no place on a referrer page. What convinces practices is reliability: brief feedback after every wound assessment.
The process in four steps
Relatives and practices ask the same question from two directions: what happens after the prescription? A four-step process band answers it for both. The details of approval by the health insurer are explained in the article doctor-prescribed home nursing care; the short version is enough on the service page.
- Prescription: the practice prescribes the benefit under no. 31a, with initial and follow-up prescriptions each covering up to 4 weeks (G-BA). If the complexity of the care or the conditions at home mean it is unlikely to be possible in the household, it should take place in a specialized facility outside the home; this must be stated on the prescription.
- First visit: the nurse assesses the wound and the care situation, clarifies materials and dressing changes and records what the patient and relatives can do themselves.
- Care and documentation: the wound description covers, among other things, location, size, area and tissue types, wound edge, surrounding skin, exudate and odor. With consent, photo documentation is usually added, and it belongs in the care records.
- Assessment and feedback: the responsible nurse in charge or the specialist lead assesses the wound at least every 4 weeks and suggests adjustments to the prescribing practice where needed (GKV framework recommendations). If new signs of inflammation, pain or deterioration appear, the service informs the practice immediately.
One more sentence belongs on the page because it can surprise relatives. If a specialized provider takes over wound care, only that provider carries it out for as long as specialized care is needed; if other care services provide further nursing measures, those involved coordinate closely (G-BA). Anyone already cared for by another service therefore does not have to give it up. The service page should say this explicitly so that worry about the familiar service does not hold back the inquiry.
The rule also affects services without a specialization. A non-specialized care service with a contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V can provide services under no. 31a for the respective prescription period. If the health insurer has granted it approval, the insurer may only name a specialized provider to take over care within an ongoing approval period with at least one week of notice (GKV framework recommendations). A service without a contract for specialized care should therefore write "wound care as prescribed by your doctor" on its service page, not "specialized wound care".
What has to be accurate behind the page
A wound care page is a snapshot of the staff. It goes out of date as soon as the specialist lead changes or a qualified nurse leaves. The framework recommendations have a rule for this: if the professional lead is temporarily unavailable, a nurse who is herself or himself qualified for independent wound care takes over as deputy, and the deputy arrangement has to be reported to the health insurer. By the beginning of the seventh month of absence at the latest, the professional lead must be ensured by a suitably qualified nurse (GKV framework recommendations).
Whatever the insurer is told should also reach the website. Decide who updates the service page when the lead changes, and check the details once a year, for example when the annual further training is documented. Content maintenance as described on the page website maintenance for care services covers such changes to text, services and team details without anyone at the service having to know the technology.
Honesty about gaps is part of it. If the specialist lead is currently being covered by a deputy or capacity for new wound care patients is exhausted, a dated status line says so more clearly than any wording. Practices accept an openly stated waiting time more readily than a promise that is withdrawn on the phone.
Checklist for the wound care page
- A dedicated "Wound care" subpage with a readable address, linked from the services overview of your website
- A page header with three pieces of evidence: contract under Section 132a(4) SGB V, additional training of the nurses with its scope, specialist lead with role
- A short paragraph on the content of the additional training, taken from the certificate
- A bar for practices with contact person, required prescription details and a "Send prescription" button
- A four-step process including feedback to the practice
- A note that the existing care service can stay on for the other services
- No promise of healing, no wound photos, no thank-you letters describing healing
- Date of the last update and clear responsibility for changes
For search, the service page counts twice. Practices and relatives search for wound care together with a place name, and a dedicated page with a clear heading and service area is in a better position for exactly that query than a line in a long list. How location and service area get onto the page is described on the page local SEO for care services.
We build pages like this as part of a care website that explains basic care, treatment care and support in plain language: relatives find the process, practices find the sending route, applicants find the qualification they can gain at the service. What a website for home care services needs overall is shown on the page website for home care services, and our services for care providers give an overview of design, copy, data protection and support. Questions about building your wound care page can be sent via our contact page.
Sources and legal texts
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