[Characteristics of evaluating nursing home residents in the Netherlands; a rating instrument].

This article describes the way in which an instrument has been developed to measure the need for help of patients in the nursing homes of the Netherlands. The instrument is an important variable in the so-called Basic Research into the cost structure of the Dutch nursing homes (in Dutch BKV). The need for help is expressed as an index ('help-index') per patient. The index is based on the strong hierarchical relations between a number of patient-variables: washing, clothing, feeding, toileting, transferring (in and out of bed, walking, standing, wheelchair-activities), continence (urine and/or faeces) and contact function (speech). The 'help-indices' of the individual patients of a specific nursing home can be summarized in the average 'help-index' of that nursing home. The averages of the individual nursing homes differ to a great extent. The average 'help-index' per nursing home is considered to be of great importance as an independent variable with respect to staff per 100 beds and costs (total or per patient day) in the nursing homes. The latter is the subject of further research.