[The "Duisgurg model" of intensified control of nursing homes and homes for the aged by the Duisberg public health services in cooperation with the Duisburg social welfare offices].

This is a report on the joint cooperative control of nursing and old-age homes by the Public Health and Social Welfare Offices in Duisburg, Germany. A total of 40 of such homes were inspected and checked jointly by the physician and pharmacist of the local Public Health Office within a one-year period while collecting data on the intensity and quality of care in these homes. A total of 3883 inmates were covered. These data included, inter alia, information on the intensity of care, prevalence of urinary and fecal incontinence, feeding by means of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, prevalence of bedridden patients and of cases of pressure sores. The data conveyed information on the overall situation (frequencies for all the Duisburg nursing and old-age homes) on the one hand, and for each individual home on the basis of its particular data on the other hand. It became evident that two-thirds of all the inmates of nursing homes were classified as belonging to nursing stages II and III. Urinary incontinence was present in 63 per cent of the cases, fecal incontinence in 43 per cent, whereas 32 per cent were severely confused. Of a total of 447 permanently bedridden patients (11.5 per cent of all the inmates) 131 had pressure sores or necroses of the heels (3.37 per cent of the total population). More than one-half of the pressure sores had been acquired by the patients during their hospital stay, i.e. before their referral to a home, whereas 56 inmates developed their pressure sores in the homes concerned.