Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
Public reporting and the quality of care of German nursing homes
Annika Herr1, Thu-Van Nguyen1, Hendrik Schmitz2
1Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; CINCH - Health Economics Research Center, Universität Duisburg-Essen Weststadttürme, Berliner Platz 6-8, 45127 Essen, Germany.
Objectives:
Since 2009, German nursing homes have been evaluated regularly by an external institution with quality report cards published online. We follow recent debates and argue that most of the information in the report cards does not reliably measure quality of care. However, a subset of up to seven measures does. Do these measures that reflect "risk factors" improve over time?
Method:
Using a sample of more than 3000 German nursing homes with information on two waves, we assume that the introduction of public reporting is an exogenous institutional change and apply before-after-estimations to obtain estimates for the relation between public reporting and quality.
Results:
We find a significant improvement of the identified risk factors. Also, the two employed outcome quality indicators improve significantly. The improvements are driven by nursing homes with low quality in the first evaluation.
Conclusion:
To the extent that this can be interpreted as evidence that public reporting positively affects the (reported) quality in nursing homes, policy makers should carefully choose indicators reflecting care-sensitive quality.
Related Concept Videos
Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
Long-Term Care Facilities
Introduction to Documentation and Reporting
Nursing documentation records essential information and details regarding a patient's care and treatment in written or electronic form. It is a critical aspect of nursing practice that involves documenting assessments, interventions, outcomes, and other relevant details about a patient's health status.
Documentation maps the patient's health journey by creating a comprehensive...
Nurses' Legal Responsibilities II
Communication between nurses and...
Data Reporting and Recording
Nursing Evaluation
Guidelines for Nursing Documentation I
Factual:
The following points emphasize the significance of upholding accurate and unbiased documentation in healthcare.
