“Appropriate Care” at the Emergency Department. What do you think that should be?

Within our society we see an increasing demand for medical care and a continuous rise in medical costs due to our aging population and the continuous increase in medical treatment possibilities.
In order to assure good, accessible and affordable care the government has launched a campaign advocating “Appropriate care” (Passende Zorg). On the website of the Netherlands Care Institute this is described as: “Appropriate care lets healthcare professionals, patients’ organisations, health insurers and the government improve how care is provided and paid for.

But what does this mean for emergency care? What would “appropriate emergency care” encompass?

During this workshop we will try to answer these questions. Case based discussions will guide us through daily situations which we will examine through the perspective of “appropriate care,“ expectations from society, laws and protocols and our own ethical compass. We will discuss important themes such as:

• how to keep the emergency department accessible for the “appropriate” patient?
• how to implement shared decision making and offer patient tailored care?
• how to prevent inappropriate diagnostics or treatments?

Together we will try to unwrap what we think “appropriate care” could or should mean for the emergency department. There is no right or wrong, but hopefully we will discover a common perspective that can help us all forward.