Call for help emergency rooms overflow

Health insurance companies sound the alarm: overcrowded emergency rooms due to minor illnesses
Actually, emergency rooms in hospitals are only for emergencies. But according to experts, about one third of patients could be safely treated outpatient. This is a danger that people with serious illnesses are treated too late.

Every third patient is wrong in the emergency department
Every year, up to 25 million people are treated in hospital emergency rooms. For years, however, it has repeatedly been criticized that too many wrong patients come, for example, because of colds or other trifles. In some clinics emergency rooms are completely overcrowded.

According to specialist associations, one third of the patients could safely be treated in the private sector, so they do not belong in the hospital, "writes the association of alternative health insurance companies e. V. (vdek) in a recent press release.

Emergency shots are actually meant for emergencies. But far too many patients come there with trivial diseases. (Image: schulzfoto / fotolia.com)

Cash registers demand portal practices at every clinic
"More and more patients go to the hospital in an emergency, even if they could have been treated on an outpatient basis," said Ulrike Elsner, CEO of vdek. According to the health insurances, there is a risk that patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses may be treated too late because of clogged emergency rooms.

The vdek refers to a report commissioned by the AQUA Institute for Applied Quality Assurance and Research in Health Care. The health insurance funds demand that so-called portal practices be set up at each clinic in which patients should be divided into acute and non-acute cases. (Ad)