[EMANet: A regional network for health services research in emergency and acute medicine]

The number of patients seeking help in emergency departments is steadily increasing. In part, this is due to patients who have acute symptoms, but do not require emergency care, as well as multimorbid patients needing complex medical care. Emergency departments serve as an interface between primary care and in-patient as well as out-patient care. The ongoing public discussion about the need to readjust emergency care structures in Germany does not adequately address this aspect. The knowledge of characteristics and needs of patients seeking help in emergency departments is insufficient. In order to develop interventions matching these needs it is necessary to gain deeper insight into these characteristics and needs. EMANet is a health services research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Its aim is to collect representative data on the course of medical care of emergency patients with ambulatory care sensitive conditions in all eight emergency departments in Mitte, the inner city district of Berlin. The EMANet project focuses on three patient groups: a) patients with cardiac symptoms and possible psychiatric comorbidities, b) ambulatory patients with acute or chronic diseases of the respiratory tract, and c) geriatric patients with hip fractures. The collected data shall be used to gain a better understanding of health care utilization patterns, patient-perceived satisfaction and risk factors for potentially avoidable medical conditions or worsening of chronic disease. The mixed methods design of EMANet includes quantitative data of 1,650 patients at two time points and corresponding secondary (i. e. routine) data from hospital information systems. In addition, qualitative interviews with patients and health care professionals shall reveal unmet needs for medical care. The results will give us more in-depth insight into the perceived current capacity overload and help implement structural changes in the health care system.