Versorgungsplanung durch datenbasierte Marktraumanalysen am Beispiel von Notfallzentren
Emergency care in Germany is currently experiencing a variety of problems and inefficiencies. So-called emergency centres are intended to improve the cross-sectoral, patient-oriented coordination of care structures. Within the framework of a simulation analyses – prepared by RWI on behalf of the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians – two different approaches are used to determine the necessary mini-mum number of such emergency centres: “green field” and “real locations”. In the first case, the required centres are distributed independently from currently existing emergency departments in Germany, resulting in a maxi-mum distance of 30 minutes driving time to the nearest provider for 99.0 percent of the population. This model requires 337 centres. In the second approach, the existing hospital structure in Germany is explicitly taken into account in the distribution of the centres and potential centres are located at existing hospitals which are currently participating in emergency care. In this case, 99.6 percent of the population would need a maximum of 30 minutes driving time to one of 736 emergency centres. In both approaches, the number is far lower than the 1,456 somatic hospitals that officially participated in emergency care in 2014. These figures show that nationwide emergency care with significantly fewer participants would be possible and would make sense from an economical and technical point of view. Depending on the underlying opening hours model (current, limited opening hours or “24/7 opening”), the operation of the emergency centres is associated with high staff numbers which sometimes cause a considerable economic deficit. In addition to optimal locations of emergency departments and practices, an improvement in patient control as well as clear structural specifications and responsibilities of the participating institutions are necessary.
Augurzky, B., A. Beivers, P. Breidenbach, A. Haering and N. Straub (2019), Versorgungsplanung durch datenbasierte Marktraumanalysen am Beispiel von Notfallzentren. In Jürgen Klauber, Max Geraedts, Jörg Friedrich and Jürgen Wasem (Hrsg.), Krankenhaus-Report 2019 - Das digitale Krankenhaus. Heidelberg: Springer, 161-173.