There are many quality certificates for ambulant and stationary nursing facilities obtainable in Germany. Yet there has been no systematic, topical survey in Germany since the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WldO) published "Qualitätssiegel und Zertifikate für Pflegeeinrichtungen--Ein Marktüberblick" (Gerste et al. 2004). The aim of this examination was to update the data on certification procedures and seals of quality for nursing institutions. We thus hopeto provide nursing homes, their staff, patients and their families with guidelines for assessing the various certificates.
Method: Via literature and online searches as well as telephone interviews with the certificate providers we created an overview of the quality certificates and seals now being used by nursing facilities in Germany.
Results: Nine of the 17 certificates reported by Gerste and colleagues in 2004 are still being employed (as of spring 2011). We identified 11 additional certificates in use and examined a total of 20 seals of quality. Their providers claim to have certified about 3700 nursing facilities.
Conclusions: The differences between the AOK WldO study by Gerste et al. in 2004 and ours seem to reveal considerable fluctuation in the quality-certification market. However, five of the six "large" certifiers (those having certified over 100 institutions) also existed in 2004. Thus the nursing-certification-market has also been somewhat stable. The market's "leaders" in 2004 were still essentially dominating the market in 2011.