INNOVATIONS IN CARE. COPY THE BEST (ZDF WISO)

Some hail it as the future of care, others call it an important innovation in nursing: the Dutch Buurtzorg model. It is a successful care concept that introduces new ways of working for community‑based nursing teams. How does the Dutch model of care differ from the way home care is organized in Germany? And could the Buurtzorg model also be implemented in Germany?

Outpatient care instead of nursing homes
The comparison between Dutch and German care reveals clear differences: in Hesse, for example, nurse Julia works within the tight constraints of the German catalogue of services, with per‑minute time specifications, a high documentation burden, and little space for genuine personal attention. In the Netherlands, by contrast, Jennifer, who is part of a Buurtzorg team, is paid by the hour and has the freedom to decide together with her clients what is most needed in that moment. That can also be a comforting conversation.

This individualized understanding of care is not the only characteristic of the Dutch model. “Buurtzorg” translates as “neighborhood care,” and that is precisely what the approach describes: the teams work exclusively in their respective neighbourhood and know the people who live there. Family members and the wider social environment are deliberately involved in order to organize care at home effectively. As a result, professional care can be deployed more precisely and efficiently. At the same time, the model aims to maintain clients’ independence for as long as possible and to avoid a move into a nursing home. Dutch studies show that hospital stays become shorter and less frequent, and many people in need of care are able to live longer in their familiar surroundings.

Self-organized elderly care workers
In Europe, Buurtzorg is also considered innovative because of its organizational structure: the model is consistently based on self-organized teams. These teams take on planning and administration on their own responsibility, and there is no traditional nursing management. A specially developed IT system supports this by reducing bureaucracy and keeping administrative effort low. This creates a high degree of autonomy in everyday care work.

This form of organization also has a positive impact on employee satisfaction. In the Netherlands, Buurtzorg teams show significantly lower staff turnover than other community care services. Some experts even see in this a potential approach to counteracting the shortage of skilled workers in the care sector. In this respect, too, Buurtzorg clearly stands out from traditional structures.

A care service as an export success
For all these reasons, Buurtzorg is regarded as innovative when care concepts are compared internationally. The Dutch care model has therefore become a kind of export success. In more than 20 countries, community-based care is now organized at least in part according to this model. In Germany, however, the Buurtzorg model has so far proven difficult to implement.