Corona-Krisenmanagement im Gesundheitswesen: Kernpunkte einer Strategie zum Umgang mit SARS-CoV-2
The industrialised world is currently experiencing a unique crisis situation due to the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 ("corona virus"). This RWI position sets out seven recommendations for a strategy to deal with the acute challenge in the health care system. Their key points are: I. Reducing need of treatment: In order to avoid a rapid overloading of treatment capacities, targeted measures should slow down the spread of the virus. The main focus should be on supporting and isolating high-risk patients. II. Capacity expansion: On the supply side, the quick procurement and organisation of additional treatment capacities - beds, equipment, personnel - must be the highest priority. In addition, the prerequisites should be created such that, in the event of a crisis escalating, medium-heavy courses of disease can be treated outside hospitals if possible. This could be achieved by setting up coordinated pools of equipment and by providing specialist instruction or online support for volunteers such as relatives or neighbours. III. Capacity utilisation: Existing capacity must not be left idle when needed. For this reason, bureaucratic requirements should be temporarily suspended, reimbursement of lost revenues promised and incentives should be provided for hospitals to keep the length of stay of COVID patients as short as possible.