Overview
- The SaN program is now operating in real time in three pilot counties — Main-Taunus, Main-Kinzig, and Gießen — after moving to a fully digital workflow.
- Calls to 112 and to the on-call 116 117 now flow to one team, where medical staff use the certified SmED tool to judge urgency and direct patients to the right setting.
- The Zentralinstitut für die kassenärztliche Versorgung has begun a one-year evaluation to assess how well the model works and how it affects emergency services.
- Capacity on the outpatient side remains the main brake, with 35 partner practices and eight on-call centers taking referrals, which means some non-urgent cases still end up at hospitals.
- The project aims to reduce avoidable ambulance runs and ease pressure on emergency rooms, and federal plans to reform ambulatory emergency care this year could draw on Hesse’s model.