Significant savings potential through reform of emergency careInterview with Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg in the ÄrzteZeitung

21 August 2025

In an interview with the Ärztezeitung, Professor Jonas Schreyögg from the HCHE discusses the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of emergency care in Germany to address overcrowded outpatient clinics, stressed staff, and high costs. The current system offers unlimited access to care, which leads to enormous resource utilization and exceeds the capacities of doctors and nurses: "We simply do not have enough doctors and nurses to continue the status quo. Reforms are needed to reduce utilization – especially in emergency care." Prof. Schreyögg proposes improving patient management and introducing integrated control centers that can be reached via a single phone number and offer comprehensive control options. In addition to the overly popular option of being taken by ambulance to a hospital's emergency room, where statistically almost half of cases are admitted as inpatients, integrated emergency centers with emergency practices could also come into play. After all, many "cases" in emergency rooms are not true emergencies. "There is considerable potential to reduce inpatient admissions. We are also seeing this in pilot hospitals such as those in Hamburg or Kiel, which have an integrated emergency center – together with a statutory health insurance emergency practice, sometimes even with their own practice. These hospitals have been able to significantly reduce admission rates – often to 30 percent."

Financially, this means potential savings of almost five billion euros per year. Although the reform is complex, particularly due to the different responsibilities of the emergency services in the federal states, Prof. Schreyögg considers the emergency reform to be the most urgent of all reforms, as it promises the greatest potential for reducing staff and financial burdens.

Please find here the complete interview in the ÄrzteZeitung from August 21, 2025 (in German).