Patients and visitors

The social workers’ rooms are directly next to Admissions in the foyer. If no social worker is available in person, you can leave a message on the answering machine. Our doctors, nurses and the staff at Reception will also be pleased to pass on your contact request.

Room 105

Phone: +49 (0)30 30008-122
Fax: +49 (0)30 30008-459

Room 104

Phone: +49 (0)30 30008-134 oder +49 (0)30 30008-299
Fax: +49 (0)30 30008-458

The management of discharges at the PKH is organised in accordance with the legal requirements. We will provide you with all the information necessary for this. We also need your written consent to the discharge management process taking place; this is requested at the end of the treatment contract. Without your consent, we are not authorised to exchange the information which is necessary to guarantee safe further treatment.

Your doctor will agree the appropriate discharge date and discharge objective with you. If you are transferred directly to a rehabilitation centre, an in-patient care facility or another hospital, you do not need to worry about transport. However it is also possible that you will not be moved directly into a follow-up care establishment, but will go home first.

At an early stage during your stay, we will establish your requirements for medication, aids and appliances, and if necessary home nursing, and will issue the necessary prescriptions. If necessary, as an interim measure the doctor can also issue a certificate of incapacity for work. Prescriptions are written out under the principle of necessity; in other words, prescriptions can only be issued as part of the hospital discharge management process if, after the patient’s hospital treatment, there is no other, more economical way of ensuring they receive the prescribable services they individually need. This is assumed to be the case if, for example, after their discharge from the hospital treatment, patients themselves are able to visit the practice of a statutory health insurance physician in good time, and arrange for the doctor to prescribe the necessary care and services for them.

As part of the discharge management process, hospitals are permitted to issue prescriptions (medication, aids and appliances, home nursing care) and certificates (incapacity for work) for up to 7 calendar days. Therefore in accordance with the legal requirement, we issue prescriptions for the N1 pack size.

These must be filled within 3 working days, with the day of discharge counting as day one. To save money, or if a prescription cannot be filled immediately after a patient is discharged, we can exceptionally give them the medication they require for the interim period, but we are unable to do so for longer than a weekend or including the public holiday following a weekend.

You will be given a medication plan together with the discharge letter for your doctor. The medication plan includes a telephone number which you can ring if any questions occur to you and need to be answered after your discharge.

If you are moved directly to a rehabilitation centre or other follow-up treatment facility following your hospital treatment, your care will be provided there. We will give them all the information they require in good time. We will also give you the details of a medical contact person who will be able to help you with any unanswered questions after you are discharged.

Further information can be found in the flyer available from the social workers we work with.

What does the discharge management process involve?

Patients are discharged from the hospital once their hospital treatment has been completed, but in certain cases further support is required to ensure the desired treatment outcome. Suitable follow-up care can, for example, comprise medical or nursing care which is provided on an outpatient basis or at an inpatient rehabilitation or nursing facility. But it can also include appointments with doctors, physiotherapists, nursing services or self-help groups, as well as assistance in applying for benefits from health insurance or nursing care insurance providers.

The hospital is legally obliged to prepare the patient’s discharge from the hospital. The objective of discharge management is to organise seamless follow-on care for the patients. For this, the hospital determines which medical or nursing measures are necessary following the hospital treatment, if any, and initiates these measures during the patient’s inpatient stay. Medication, treatment products and aids, sociotherapy and home nursing care can be prescribed, or incapacity for work can be ascertained, if these are necessary for the immediate follow-on care after discharge from the hospital.

The hospital informs and advises all patients about all the discharge management measures, and agrees all the planned measures with them. If the patients so wish, their family members or care partner can be involved in the information and advice.

Why is a declaration of consent required?

The law prescribes that for a discharge management process to take place and funding to be provided for this by the health insurance or nursing care insurance providers, the patient’s consent must be obtained in written form.

Within the discharge management process, it can be necessary for the hospital to contact, for example, doctors, healthcare professionals (e.g. physiotherapists or occupational therapists) or aid and appliance manufacturers, and/or the patient’s health insurance or nursing care insurance provider. It might then be necessary to transmit the patient’s details to these other persons for this purpose, and this requires the patient’s written consent. This is given by means of the declaration of consent included in the treatment contract; the patients can use this to declare their consent to the discharge management process and the associated data transmission, as well as giving their consent to the discharge management being funded by the health or nursing care insurance provider, and the data transmission associated with this.

Discharge management by authorised persons outside the hospital

Hospitals can transfer the discharge management tasks to a doctor’s practice or other independent institutions, or to approved medical practitioners or institutions. This possibility is provided for by the legislature. At the Paulinenkrankenhaus, the care establishment we work with (Pflege Managed Care GmbH) is entrusted with various tasks during discharge management. The patients are informed separately of this and asked for their consent.

What if no discharge management needs to take place?

If the patients do not wish to have a managed discharge and/or it is not intended for their health insurance or nursing care insurance provider to provide any funding, these patients do not issue their consent. If no discharge management is undertaken despite being required, this might result in follow-on measures not being initiated or commenced in good time. If applications for benefits from a patient’s health insurance or nursing care insurance provider are submitted later, this might mean that patient is only entitled to benefits at a later date.

What if patients wish to revoke the consent they have already provided?

If patients have already consented to the discharge management process being undertaken, but later wish to revoke their consent, they can do so at any time in writing.

• If this revocation applies to the discharge management process being undertaken as a whole, patients declare their full revocation to the hospital.
• If this revocation applies solely to their consent to their health insurance or nursing care insurance provider funding the discharge management, patients declare their revocation in writing to the health insurance or nursing care insurance provider and to the hospital.

Depending on this revocation, either no discharge management will be undertaken despite being required, or it will not be funded by the health insurance or nursing care insurance provider. This might result in follow-on measures not being initiated or commenced in good time. If applications for benefits from a patient’s health insurance or nursing care insurance provider are submitted later, this might mean that patient is only entitled to benefits at a later date.

If you have any questions about discharge management, then the hospital, the health insurance provider or the nursing care insurance provider will be pleased to provide further information.

We undertake our social services in collaboration with the care establishment Managed Care. So that the social care can be provided effortlessly, on admission you or your authorised representatives will be asked to provide your consent to the transmission of the data required for this purpose. You can find out more in the section on discharge planning / social workers in our patient information folder.