title: [Organizational forms of emergency medicine from the viewpoint of hospital management. Discipline-specific or interdisciplinary?].
abstract: Almost 16 million Germans are treated annually in an emergency room (ER). Most patients are seen in a specialty ER and only 10-20% of all hospitals have a centralized ER facility. Clinical emergency medicine is currently not adequately reimbursed, but represents a major patient entry point for most hospitals. It remains unclear whether the implementation of specialized ER physicians is more cost-effective than centralized specialization. However, it appears reasonable to centralize all ER resources, to optimize the workflow using electronic patient charts and order entry sets and to incorporate the general practitioner into the treatment of simple medical problems.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik IV, Universitätsklinikum, Hugstetter Strasse 55, Freiburg, Germany. gerd.walz@uniklinik-freiburg.de
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Walz
mesh_terms: D002497:Centralized Hospital Services / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D058006:General Practice / Q000191:economics; D005858:Germany; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D057188:Workflow