Clinic war near Regensburg: “Knee Pope” and the Asklepios Group are making accusations  

Created: 09/11/2022, 04:45 am

By: Stefan Aigner

Professor Joachim Grifka sharply criticized Asklepios and is now being publicly accused of it.

© Asklepios Clinic Bad Abbach

Profit before patient well-being - this is the accusation made by the renowned Regensburg physician Professor Joachim Grifka against the Asklepios Clinic in Bad Abbach.

But now he's being targeted.

Regensburg/Bad Abbach – At first glance, it was only an employment law dispute between Professor Joachim Grifka and the Asklepios Klinikum Bad Abbach that got the ball rolling.

But in the meantime, at the Asklepios Clinic, which is known nationwide in particular thanks to Grifka's reputation as the "knee pope", the fight is so tough that not only in specialist circles can you hardly stop shaking your head.

Labor Court Regensburg: Professor Grifka railed against new orthopedics in Bad Abbach

Why is?

Grifka, 64, member of the Leopoldina, director of the university clinic for orthopedics, which is located at Asklepios in Bad Abbach, and holder of the corresponding chair at the University of Regensburg, complained to a labor court against the introduction of a so-called department structure in the orthopedic clinic .

Above all, however, he used the public court hearing in mid-July to criticize the new orthopedics department that Asklepios set up in Bad Abbach at the beginning of the year, the so-called "Orthopaedics II".

The dispute behind this has long been known in specialist circles and is of a fundamental nature.

Joachim Grifka is an advocate of a conservative therapeutic approach - superfluous operations should be avoided.

All news from Regensburg and the surrounding area are always up to date and only available from us.

Accusation against Asklepios: lucrative operations instead of honest medicine

He was a thorn in the side of the Asklepios clinic group.

With his attitude, he was considered "damaging to business," said the professor before the labor court.

With Orthopedics II, the hospital group is only concerned with optimizing profits.

More lucrative operations instead of, as the professor put it before the labor court, "honest medicine for my patients".

His department, on the other hand, would be deprived of space and capacity – to the detriment of the patients.

The Regensburg labor court advises an agreement – ​​but then an unprecedented letter follows

According to Grifka, he is not alone in his skepticism about the introduction of a department structure.

The University of Regensburg, for which Grifka works in his dual role, more precisely, the dean of the medical faculty, is critical of its introduction.

Asklepios Managing Director Joachim Bachmeyer, on the other hand, contradicted at the court hearing that it was a "cat war", a "monkey show".

He could refute any criticism of Grifka.

In the end, the judge recommended an amicable settlement and the proceedings were suspended – for the time being.

But what followed should be unprecedented nationwide.

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Open letter: Asklepios executives are sharply critical and allegations of fraud against Grifka

A good week later, several managers at the Asklepios Clinic in Bad Abbach addressed the public with an open letter.

The letter is peppered with sharp criticism, personal attacks and allegations, some of which are probably also relevant under criminal law.

There is talk of "defamatory" claims and "distortions of facts" that Grifka made public.

And of an “intolerable hubris” on the part of the medical director.

In addition, the allegation is made that Grifka "is said to have billed for operations for more than two decades that he did not perform and was also unable to perform professionally".

In addition, for his "private invoices, he applied incremental rates (...), which often exceed the usual chief physician rate by up to ten times".

And fundamentally, the further trusting cooperation with Professor Grifka is "closely questioned".

Despite fierce allegations: Asklepios is taking almost no consequences for the time being

The letter is signed by Dr.

Georg Bonnländer, Medical Director Chief Physician Anesthesiology, and Associate Professor Dr.

Patrick Hoffstetter, Deputy Medical Director, Chief Physician, Radiology.

Both were elected to these leadership positions just last year.

Professor Heiko Koller, chief physician of the spine center in the new Orthopedics II, also signed;

dr

Robert Morrison, chief physician in the spine center of the new orthopedics II and finally Andrea Schmalfuss, general manager of care, and Armin Kolb, head of physiotherapy.

Billing fraud for more than two decades - a massive allegation which, on the one hand, raises the question of why the signers of this letter remained silent for so long beforehand.

On the other hand, the consequences Asklepios now draws from this are also of interest.

The short answer to the latter question is: almost none.

We were informed in the conversation that it is important that Asklepios neither stipulated this letter nor that it was coordinated with the management.

But given the allegations and choice of words, one was shocked and surprised.

After the criminal complaint: the public prosecutor's office has started investigations

But they don't want to do anything concrete, they say.

On the one hand, this is justified by the fact that it is not known whether Professor Grifka has miscalculated over two decades or not.

He has "an immediate right of liquidation, ie he settles accounts directly with his patients on his own and bears sole responsibility for this".

It is therefore impossible to say whether this accusation is true.

Of course, it is unacceptable "that in the context of the cooperation between the University Clinic Regensburg and Asklepios in our clinic in Bad Abbach, a lecturer professor may incorrectly bill".

The department structure criticized by Grifka “would have the purpose of providing him with administrative support and would also ensure that the billing he was currently responsible for alone would be free of abnormalities,” it said.

"Options for action under labor law" will now be examined.

Everything else must be clarified by the public prosecutor.

According to Asklepios itself, however, it has not yet taken any criminal or civil action.

However, knows about the fact that there is a criminal complaint, but the reimburser is not known.

According to reliable information from our editorial team, the public prosecutor's office in Nuremberg, which is responsible for accounting fraud and where the central office for combating fraud and corruption in the health care system (ZKG) is located, is now dealing with this ad.

Professor Grifka describes allegations as "untenable" - and is sentenced to silence

A spokesman for the authority does not want to confirm or deny whether there is actually an initial or even urgent suspicion against Professor Grifka, so as not to jeopardize possible investigations.

However, it is customary for a preliminary investigation to be initiated as a result of a complaint – regardless of how well-founded the suspicion is.

Professor Grifka has not yet responded to a query from our editorial team.

He described the allegations made in the letter to the Mittelbayerische Zeitung as "untenable".

However, his contract of employment prohibits him from commenting on this in detail.

Despite allegations against the renowned chair holder: silence from the University of Regensburg

The University of Regensburg is keeping a low profile in view of the arguments and allegations, which after all concern a renowned chair holder.

Talks have been held with Asklepios and will be continued, according to the local press office.

However, confidentiality was agreed on.

So far, the cooperation between the private group Asklepios and the state university and the university hospital in Regensburg has been a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The Asklepios-Klinikum Bad Abbach enjoys an excellent reputation in view of the orthopedics managed by Grifka, making it into the best lists of Focus, Newsweek and others.

For the University Hospital Regensburg, the outsourcing of orthopedics solves a historically grown problem.

When the federal government withdrew from funding after the founding of the university hospital, various clinical areas were outsourced instead of being set up directly on campus - including orthopedics in Bad Abbach.

Open conflict within the medical profession: loss of trust among patients?

All of this is scratched by the dispute made public by Grifka, the massive allegations in the open letter, the investigation that has now begun by a public prosecutor's office specializing in fraud in the healthcare sector, but also the silence or inaction on the part of the university and Asklepios.

The obvious question of whether cooperation between the head of orthopedics, Professor Grifka, and the head of anaesthesia, who signed the open letter in which the trust is terminated, is still possible, especially during operations, is still possible at Asklepios .

"The professionalism of our physicians in dealing with patients is completely unquestionable for us," it says succinctly.

It remains to be seen whether future patients will also rate it that way.

More lawsuits: Grifka wins, loses - and is not allowed to speak publicly

Incidentally, the Regensburg Labor Court overturned a warning from Asklepios against Grifka this week.

He tried to scare away staff for the new Orthopedics II, so the accusation that Grifka rejected.

In the end, the court agreed with him.

The warning must be removed from Grifka's personnel file.

Bitter for the professor: In a second decision, he was forbidden to comment comprehensively on the dispute with Asklepios to third parties.

The district of Kelheim hands over the decision-making authority over its hospital to the Regensburg Caritas, but still has to bear all the costs and risks.

But that's not the only thing that raises questions about the point of this deal.