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According to an analysis by the Central Institute of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, associations of statutory health insurance physicians are increasingly using central patient distribution instruments to avoid emergency patients visiting hospital emergency rooms and instead of being treated by general practitioners and specialists in private practice.

Dr. Dominik von Stillfried, as director of the institute, points to a „trend reversal“ that can be seen in figures. While 10.67 million emergency patients were treated in hospitals in 2016, the number fell to 10.27 million in 2019. On the other hand, on-call medical services are reporting rising numbers of emergency patients who do not require care in hospitals. Therefore, emergency outpatient clinics are no longer necessarily the first port of call; instead, it is primarily on-call physicians who work in 830 so-called on-call practices nationwide. Of these, 660 are even located in or attached to hospitals.

This trend has been observed since 2009 and can also be explained because the 116117 telephone number is used to refer and direct acute cases directly to on-call medical practices. Indeed, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) points out that in three years since 2016, calls have grown from 6.3 million calling to eight million.

However, patients have different clinical pictures, so the picture in hospitals is dominated by diagnoses around injuries and musculoskeletal disorders. In contrast, the medical on-call service is dominated by cases involving wounds or minor injuries and people with acute infectious diseases affecting the upper respiratory tract and tonsils (tonsilitis).

Source: www.springermedizin.de