Felix Rauschek, Managing Director of the Asklepios City Clinic, gave an overview of the hospital's range of services in the district council.
The economic challenges are great.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – One or the other district councilor seemed a bit tight-lipped at the meeting on Monday in the Geretsried school gym.
A sentence from Felix Rauschek's lecture was the deciding factor.
The regional manager of Asklepios only pointed out that since the takeover of the Tölz hospital 20 years ago, 50.4 million euros in own funds (plus 16.7 million state subsidies) have been invested in investments and 27.5 million in the maintenance of the once municipal clinic have flowed.
Money that the city and/or county would otherwise have had to raise to maintain the hospital.
The district council knows exactly what Rauschek is talking about.
After all, considerable sums of money flow into deficit compensation at the Wolfratshauser district clinic every year.
3,
270 beds in twelve specialist departments
In fact, Rauschek went on to exceed the contractually stipulated specifications, which should ensure that the location is not neglected, by more than 30 million euros.
"And we pay just under 70,000 euros in lease every year" - to the city and the district.
In addition to the financial aspect, the lecture by Rauschek and neurology chief physician Prof. Dr.
Rüdiger Ilg about the services of the clinic for basic and standard care.
The house offers 270 beds in twelve specialist departments.
Around 28,000 patients were treated last year.
There is also a clinic for neurological rehabilitation with 59 beds, the company's own nursing school with 90 training places and a medical care center at the site.
If you took on 491 employees in 2002, you have now reached around 830.
"We have developed significantly and are one of the largest employers and training companies in the district," said Rauschek.
There has also been a significant increase in the number of registered nurses since 2019. “All areas are open to us.
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Felix Rauschek, regional manager of the Asklepios Clinic.
© Clinic
20,000 cases per year in the emergency room
70 percent of the patients come from the district.
"Some people accuse us of being cherry pickers," meaning that only lucrative disciplines are promoted, said Rauschek.
"That's not the case." More than 8,000 of the inpatients are emergencies, for example.
A total of around 20,000 cases per year are treated in the emergency room.
This is a level 2 emergency room with an expanded range of services.
Tölz is one of only 144 hospitals in Germany (around 1950 in total) that offer this.
Otherwise, the Asklepios City Clinic has a certified stroke unit that offers stroke patients rapid, comprehensive and highly specialized care, a certified chest pain unit for the treatment of patients with acute chest pain and the da Vinci X surgical robot system, used in urology and surgery.
There is a new main department for ear, nose and throat medicine/head and neck and facial surgery and a new thyroid centre.
Over 2100 corona patients so far
The Corona period, which lasted more than two and a half years, was and is a challenge for the clinic.
Over 2100 corona patients have been treated on an outpatient or inpatient basis since the beginning of the pandemic.
There is also a strict hygiene concept and a high-frequency test strategy to prevent major outbreaks among employees, 95 percent of whom are vaccinated, according to Rauschek.
"It's a challenging time.
We learned a lot about and about Corona," said the managing director.
Exploding energy prices put a strain on clinics
From an economic point of view, the challenges are not getting any smaller.
Subsidies, for example for beds that could no longer be occupied due to the pandemic, have long since expired.
Remuneration isn't increasing nearly as much as inflation, and the skyrocketing energy prices are putting a particular strain on clinics, "because we use an enormous amount of energy," said Rauschek.
Roughly speaking, a hospital bed consumes as much as three single-family houses.
He does not know whether the clinics will also benefit from the federal government's new relief package.
But something urgently needs to be done.
"Otherwise it will be very, very tight for many."
Actually, Rauschek's lecture had already been planned for the July meeting - together with the presentation of the range of services of the Wolfratshauser district clinic.
At that time, however, the managing director had to cancel due to illness.
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