Emergency reform: This is changing for patients in the hospital emergency room

Vote in the Bundestag

This is changing for patients in the emergency room

Emergency medical care in Germany is to be reorganized. Patients will then have to adapt to a new system in the future.

Parliament will decide this Thursday on the Federal Government Planned reform of emergency care: Patients should be better managed in medical emergencies and the overloaded emergency departments in hospitals should be relieved.

There is widespread agreement about the need for reform of emergency care, but those affected differ widely when it comes to the exact design of the law. An overview of existing plans and simmering points of contention.

The reform of emergency care includes two key points: the establishment of Integrated Emergency Centers (INZ) at selected hospitals and the networking of the emergency numbers 112 and 116117.

Networking 112 and 116117: The rescue control centers (112) and the control centers of the statutory health insurance associations (116117) are to be digitally networked with each other. It doesn’t matter which number is chosen: The system should be linked in such a way that employees can immediately see how urgent the respective case is using a standardized initial assessment for both numbers. If someone calls 112 with minor complaints, they can be transferred directly to 116117 – or vice versa.

In non-life-threatening cases, patients can be referred to a nearby emergency service. If the patients are not mobile due to their condition, the control center can send an on-call doctor to the patient’s home. It should also be possible to arrange a video consultation.

The Integrated Emergency Centers (INZ): In addition to the telephone numbers, INZ will be set up at selected hospitals; more than 700 are planned. The heart of the INZ is the central initial assessment. Anyone who visits the hospital without admission or prior registration ends up here first. Medical staff assess the complaints according to a standardized system. If this classifies the case as outpatient, for example in the case of a flu-like infection or a minor cut, the patient is forwarded to an integrated emergency service practice of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. In the case of more serious injuries or life-threatening cases, the patient goes to the emergency room.

The INZ can be visited by patients in acute cases. Nevertheless, they should be encouraged to obtain an initial assessment beforehand, if possible by calling 116117. Patients who take this path should be rewarded. You can use the so-called Fast Lane at the INZ and, if the symptoms are assessed in the same way, you will be treated more quickly than patients who have the assessment carried out at the INZ first.

In addition, the rescue service should also be strengthened. In the future, medical services on site and during transport to the hospital should be anchored in the Fifth Social Code as an independent service area of ​​statutory health insurance. So far, the costs of the emergency service have only been covered as travel costs. This is intended to eliminate the risk for insured parties of having to cover the costs of rescue operations themselves. Nevertheless, large aid and rescue organizations fear that they will run into financial difficulties.