New strategy for Agatharied Hospital: Deficit to be largely reduced by 2024

Created: 05/15/2022, 11:40 am

By: Stephen Hank

Forming the management of the clinic: (from left) Chairman Benjamin Bartholdt and the medical directors Dr.

Steffen Herdtle and Prof. Markus Rehm.

Not on the Twelve-person strategy team Geriatric rehabilitation as a topic for the future © is Nursing Director Sven Steppat.

Photo: Thomas Plettenberg

Agatharied Hospital will present a strategy paper to the Board of Directors later this month.

The concept covers the future orientation of the clinic in three thematic blocks.

District – The news that the new head of the clinic brought to the district council at its meeting in March was bitter: Last year, the Agatharied hospital incurred a loss of 12.5 million euros.

Benjamin Bartholdt, who has been in office since February as the successor to long-time managing director Michael Kelbel, was confident that he would be able to reduce most of the deficit by 2024.

A new strategic orientation that has been developed over the past few weeks is intended to help.

The aim is to maintain the medical and nursing level and at the same time to remain financially viable.

At the end of the month, the Board of Directors will deal with the proposals for the first time in a non-public meeting.

At its core, the concept consists of three pillars: the classic optimization, for example in terms of costs, the medical strategy and the so-called green field approach.

In other words, the clinic is considering how it would position itself structurally if it were at the very beginning.

"We have to rethink the supply process and the procedures," says Bartholdt.

60 percent of patients would come to the hospital because of an emergency.

Their care should not affect interventions that have been planned for some time.

Strict resource planning is therefore necessary.

"Central development area": ​​geriatric rehabilitation

In addition to an external consulting firm, a twelve-person strategy team is involved in developing the concept.

"We have a lot of know-how in-house, and we have to use it," emphasizes the 41-year-old.

With the backing of the medical profession, he also reorganized the clinic management and, as he says, gathered a “powerful team” around him.

In addition to nursing director Sven Steppat (48), Dr.

Steffen Herdtle (44), chief physician for acute and emergency medicine, and chief anesthetist Prof. Markus Rehm (54) as medical directors.

The latter comes from the LMU Clinic in Munich and has only been in the hospital for six months.

"I'm impressed by the medical performance," admits Rehm.

“The basic care here is at university level.” The employees are open to new processes and feel that each and every one of them is important.

Herdtle confirms that. Despite the bottlenecks, especially in nursing, the staff is highly motivated.

During the corona pandemic, the clinic proved its capabilities: "The team was able to set up new processes almost overnight."

Retaining existing staff and acquiring new ones is one of the biggest challenges given the shortage of skilled workers.

And then the clinic has to decide what additional medical services it can and wants to afford in the future in addition to basic and standard care.

The range of medical services, Bartholdt knows, should take up a lot of space in the board of directors' discussion.

The clinic also sees great potential in geriatric rehabilitation, which aims to avoid the need for care in older patients after a serious illness.

"This is a central development area," says Bartholdt, who is in line with the medical directors.

“The need is there,” emphasizes Herdtle.

Rehm describes it as a “good form of medicine”.

Large parts of the loss are to be reduced by 2024

Exactly how this topic, which has been discussed for years, will be implemented is still open.

A new building, which would actually be required for geriatric rehabilitation, could fail, at least in the near future, due to the costs and shortage of materials on site.

For the time being, the hospital will probably have to cope with the stock of premises and staff.

The outpatient area is also likely to play a greater role in the future.

When asked, however, Bartholdt dampened fears that the hospital would become a major competitor to resident doctors.

"Of course there is potential for conflict," admits the clinic director.

“However, the core of our hospital will always remain the inpatient area.” He does not see further offers in the outpatient area as a remedy for the deficit, “only as a necessity for services,

If the board of directors gives the go-ahead, they want to start implementing the three-pillar concept in the second half of the year.

In one area or another, further investments will initially be necessary in order to benefit later from the savings.

By 2024, it should be possible to reduce large parts of the accumulated loss.

"The current deficit cannot be expected of the district as the responsible body in the long term," Bartholdt clarifies.

"He has other tasks." sh

hospital in numbers

1228 employees, 350 beds, 95 million euros annual turnover, 6000 operations per year.

Twelve-strong strategy team, geriatric rehabilitation as a future topic.

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