[The medical emergency department in a Swiss regional hospital: the important role of generalists].

Patients not having a general practitioner will more likely use the emergency departments (ED) of hospitals for primary care. Crowding of the ED due to patients with minor health problems is a growing burden. The present work was aimed to analyze data of ED consultations at a Swiss regional hospital. Leading diagnoses of ED consultations covered a broad spectrum of internal medicine. The majority of patients seen in the ED are «walk-in» patients with minor problems that after initial evaluation and treatment in the ED could be managed as outpatients. Pediatric patients made a considerable part of the workload. Elderly patients (>65 years) were hospitalized more often.