FAQ about the Central Emergency Department (ZNA)

The primary task of the emergency department is to treat acute emergencies or to rule out the presence of an emergency.

The emergency room is the right place for patients with acutely occurring life-threatening complaints and illnesses (e.g. heart attack, traffic accident, serious infections) or if there is a risk of irreversible loss of important bodily functions (e.g. stroke). Indications of this may be sudden severe pain, shortness of breath, chest tightness, high fever that cannot be brought down, sudden severe weakness, change of character, new symptoms of paralysis or coughing up blood/ vomiting blood. Please note that this list only contains examples and does not claim to be exhaustive. Depending on the symptoms, please contact the emergency services by calling 112.

You may also have received an emergency referral (issued on the same day) from your GP or specialist practice asking you to present yourself at the hospital immediately.

If you are not sure whether you need to go to the Central Emergency Department, you can first contact the emergency medical service (telephone 116 117) or your GP practice. If in doubt, you can always be admitted to the Central Emergency Department. We will work with you to find the right place for your treatment and refer you accordingly. Please understand that the emergency room itself cannot offer telephone advice.

For longer-term or less severe complaints (e.g. flu-like infection), please contact your GP practice (or alternatively the practice replacement if you are on vacation). Outside the GP's opening hours, the emergency medical practices, for example on the campus of the University Hospital, Building 43, are also available at the following times:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 19:00 to 24:00
• Wednesday, Friday from 13:00 to 24:00
• Weekends, public holidays from 09:00 to 24:00

Prescriptions for medication and certificates of incapacity for work can be issued there if required. Further information on the emergency medical service is available online or by calling 116 117.

If you do not have a GP practice, you may be able to visit our university outpatient clinic for general medicine at short notice. You can make an appointment there by calling +49 221 478-39347.

Unfortunately, clarification as part of emergency care is only possible in the acute emergencies mentioned above. Even then, treatment in the emergency room does not replace outpatient specialist treatment.

If you have an urgent referral from your GP, it is possible to make an appointment via online portals such as Doctolib or via the appointments office of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians or by telephone (116 117). Appointments with a specialist can often be arranged at short notice within a few days, but certainly within the next four weeks.

You can make appointments at radiology practices with a referral to radiology. Imaging can only be carried out in our ZNA in emergencies. However, it is of course also possible to make an appointment in our radiology department: Making an appointment in the radiology department of Cologne University Hospital.

If there are acute or severe symptoms, such as new or increasing shortness of breath, severe pain, vomiting blood or the inability to swallow, it is necessary to go to the emergency room.

If you have no new symptoms, a suspected tumor is usually investigated on an outpatient basis. This usually requires special, organizationally and/or time-consuming examinations that are not possible as part of a clarification in the emergency room. In order to arrange prompt outpatient appointments, please contact our pilots at the Center for Integrated Oncology (CiO) on +49 221 478-87660. Further information, including registration forms for patients and referring physicians, can be obtained from the Center for Integrated Oncology.

If there are no new complaints which, as mentioned above ("Am I in the right place in the Central Emergency Department?"), require clarification in the emergency department, we would ask you to make an outpatient appointment for a second opinion at an appropriate specialist outpatient clinic in the hospital.

A comprehensive second opinion cannot be given in the emergency room, even for acute complaints; we can only clarify the acute complaints.

After registration, all patients are classified by specially trained nursing staff in terms of their urgency ("triage") and treated by the team in the appropriate order according to the resulting triage category. We are initially guided by the life-threatening nature of complaints and illnesses. This applies regardless of whether you present yourself independently or are brought in by ambulance. There are also different waiting times for different departments and examinations. Your waiting time also changes with each new patient arriving. We are therefore unable to make a reliable statement about waiting times, but waiting and treatment times can be many hours.

We would ask you to refrain from asking questions about waiting times.

Please bring a copy of the previous findings relating to the current complaints (doctor's letters, CT, MRI or X-ray images and findings, ideally on CD or as a QR code) and your medication plan and hand them in when you register. This is the only way the medical staff can optimally prepare for the consultation or involve other specialist disciplines in advance.

If you do not speak German, please clarify in advance who can translate for you on site or by telephone if necessary. We do not have translators on site.

We know that emergency admissions to an emergency room can be particularly emotionally stressful and that relatives or other trusted persons can help to cope with this.

An accompanying person may therefore be present in the waiting area, in the treatment rooms and during the medical consultation. We would ask that other relatives wait in the main hall. We also ask for your understanding that the chairs in the waiting area are reserved for patients and accompanying persons with physical disabilities.

We have additional treatment places in the corridor of the emergency room. For space and organizational reasons, relatives may only be present here in exceptional cases and, if necessary, during the medical consultation. We must therefore ask the person accompanying you to wait outside the emergency room after the consultation.

You may of course bring any children you wish to supervise with you, but there is no childcare available in the emergency room. As there may be considerable waiting and treatment times, we would ask you to check whether there are alternative childcare options (grandparents, friends, neighbors).

We understand that your relatives are worried about you. Nevertheless, we ask you: If you are able to do so, please pass on important information to your relatives yourself if possible. Discussions with the nursing or medical team are only possible if there are no emergencies to be attended to. Please also understand that telephone conversations can only be held with one contact person due to time constraints.

On arrival, please report to the registration desk (counter, middle window). Your health insurance card will be scanned here and we will also take your contact details. If you do not have your health insurance card to hand, please tell us your health insurance company; you can submit the card at short notice (within two weeks). Patients who are not insured in the EU must pay 200 euros in advance; you will receive a receipt for this and the invoice from the university hospital by post. A nurse will then record the reason for your presentation and make an initial assessment of your condition (counter, left window). You will then usually be asked to take a seat in the waiting area. Depending on the reason for your admission, some patients will be taken to the treatment rooms or the corridor of the ZNA immediately after registration.

Next, you will be called out of the waiting room by a nurse to check your blood pressure, temperature, blood sample, ECG or similar. As part of the blood sampling, a venous access is often created in order to keep the number of punctures as low as possible for you. An initial medical examination may be carried out at this stage, which also serves to assess the urgency of your case and does not replace further medical treatment.

If you have brought findings obtained in another medical facility (CDs/QR codes with X-ray/CT/MRI, doctor's letters, medication lists), we would ask you to hand these over to the nursing staff. The findings can then be viewed, assessed and entered into the system by the medical staff.

Following these measures, you will wait in the waiting room for a medical examination. Please only leave the waiting room if absolutely necessary so that we can find you when we want to bring you in for a consultation.

After the blood sample has been taken, the samples are analyzed by the in-house laboratory and we usually receive the laboratory results within 2 hours.

While you are waiting, we will make initial findings to which we will respond immediately. We also review the findings you bring with you and discuss them with other specialist departments if necessary.

After examinations have been carried out (e.g. ultrasound, CT, consultative examinations), these must be evaluated, compared with previous examinations and documented. A CT scan, for example, produces several thousand images, depending on the problem, which have to be analyzed in the radiology department. This results in waiting times that we can hardly influence. Please note that a written report is required for discharge, particularly after sectional imaging (CT, MRI), as the emergency diagnostics performed must be fully documented.

Before an inpatient admission (= treatment with an overnight stay in hospital), a bed must be found and the relevant ward must be informed and transport to this ward organized. Depending on the availability of beds, patients may be admitted to one of the wards at the University Hospital, to our emergency admission ward or to EVK Weyertal. In exceptional cases, we may have to transfer patients to other hospitals, usually close to home.

These organizational activities in addition to the medical activities cause a relevant part of your waiting time.

Hospitalization does not automatically mean that you have to be admitted as an inpatient (= treatment with overnight stay in hospital). Inpatient treatment will only take place if there is a corresponding necessity. We will check this and try to find the best solution for you together with you.

We only keep emergency medication in the emergency room itself. It therefore makes sense for you to bring your medication with you for the day. As a rule, there is no reason why you should not take your medication as prescribed, but please consult us briefly.

If you have urgent questions, you can contact our care coordinators. You can recognize them by their pink top.

Please ask us for a painkiller if you need and want one. To be on the safe side, please make us aware of any known allergies to painkillers.

Please understand that we can only issue prescriptions for the smallest pack size for the treatment of acute emergencies. This usually lasts at least until the next working day. A follow-up prescription can be issued by your GP practice. As a rule, it is not possible to take medication with you. You can find the pharmacy emergency service on the Internet.

We cannot prescribe medicines that fall under the Narcotics Act or medicines that are not required for emergency treatment in the emergency room. Please contact your general practitioner's surgery or the emergency service outside surgery opening hours.

On request, you will receive a certificate of your treatment with us once your treatment has been completed. A certificate of incapacity for work ("sick note") can be issued by the GP practice on the next working day.

At the end of your treatment in the emergency room, you will receive a doctor's letter. This contains the most important diagnoses and the results of the examinations we have carried out, including the laboratory results. In the last part of the letter ("epicrisis") you will find our recommendations for possible further treatment or check-ups.

Please pass your doctor's letter on to the doctors treating you, as we do not usually send doctor's letters from the emergency room by post (or digitally).

Please note that we are unfortunately unable to arrange appointments for you for in-house outpatient clinics or surgeries. We kindly ask you to contact us yourself and make an appointment.

You can find the contact details of the special outpatient clinics located in the hospital on the Cologne University Hospital website.

We can only issue transport certificates after outpatient treatment in exceptional cases (from care level 3 with accompanying mobility restriction). This also applies if you have been taken to the emergency room by ambulance.

Cabs are available in front of the main entrance to the hospital, and we will also be happy to help you find a cab. You will have to pay the cab fare yourself. Alternatively, you can have a relative pick you up. Please note that the driveway next to the emergency room is reserved for the emergency services and private individuals are not allowed to stop or park here. The University Hospital parking garage is available for this purpose.

If necessary, you or your relatives can borrow a wheelchair from the information desk. An identity card is required as a deposit.

The KVB train lines 9 (Lindenburg stop) and 13 (Gleueler Str./Gürtel stop) as well as the bus line 146 (Gleueler Str./Gürtel, Leibelplatz and Geibelstraße stops) are within walking distance.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer food for outpatient treatment in the emergency room, but there are snack vending machines in the waiting room, and you can also eat at the kiosk in the entrance hall or the cafeteria in the LFI.

If you present with vomiting, abdominal pain or a cardiac arrhythmia, do not eat and only drink water during the waiting time, as there is a high probability that you will have to fast for an examination or treatment.

No, we do not keep cell phone charging cables available, but there are sockets near the waiting area.

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