Swiss patients could be sent to recover at home instead of in hospital

The “Hospital at home” project, already in use in other countries, is tested in Switzerland as well.

It involves patients being released from hospital after treatment or surgery sooner than usual, so they can recuperate at home — but only if the person condition allows it. 

It helps cut the cost of healthcare, which the Swiss government is attempting to do in various ways

“With this project, we could eliminate between 15 and 20 percent of hospital beds,” according to Abraham Licht, the head doctor of the Hirslanden Emergency Centre, who founded the “Hospital at Home” working group.

It would lead to the savings of about 3.2 billion francs.

And on the topic of hospitals…

A new app helps save wait time in the emergency room

Geneva University Hospital (HUG) is launching an application, called InfoMed, allowing people seeking medical help to be directed to an emergency service based on their symptoms. 

If these symptoms signal true medical emergencies (rather than ones that can be treated by a family doctor), the app will suggest which of HUG’s urgent-care services is most appropriate for a given case.  

The patient is then automatically placed in a queue and will receive an SMS informing them when to come.

A similar system is already in use at Vaud’s university hospital, CHUV.

MPs vote to strengthen law against underage marriage

While marriages with (or between) minors are not legal in Switzerland, the parliamentary measure launched on Wednesday targets unions concluded abroad, as this is lawful in some countries — even if one or both underage individuals do so under duress.

Currently in Switzerland, a minor can annul their marriage only until they turn 18.

Under the new legislation, however, this move will be possible until their 25th birthday.

Zurich hotel charges 1 franc for an ice cube

It is a proven fact that Zurich is the world’s most expensive city.

But even its notoriously high cost of living doesn’t typically include frozen water.

Except if you order a drink on ice at the luxury Storchen Hotel in Zurich, where a single ice cube costs 1 franc.

The hotel explains that its ice cubes are not only larger than ordinary ones and melt slowly, “thus prolonging the enjoyment of the drink” but, above all, each is decorated with a stork logo (‘Storchen’ means stork in German).

The price is therefore determined by the manufacturing process: “When an order is placed, the ice cube is stamped with our logo by hand at the bar.”

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