As of: January 29, 2024, 7:02 p.m
By: Andrea Gräpel
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For more than 40 years, Robert Schindlbeck looked after the skilful woman in the former private clinic, which was founded by his father in 1946.
© Photographer: Andrea Jaksch
Robert Schindlbeck about the hardships, successes and prospects of the Herrschinger Hospital.
Herrsching
– Robert Schindlbeck can only remember the beginnings of the private clinic of the same name in Herrsching from his father’s stories.
He was born in 1954. The clinic has existed since 1946. The Schindlbeck Clinic has been part of the district's Hospital GmbH since 2020.
On December 31st, the managing director retired after more than 40 years.
As reported, he was officially adopted on Thursday.
A look back.
Mr. Schindlbeck, the last Schindlbeck at the clinic has now retired. For many years you had your father's bust on your back. Did you take them with you?
The bust now has a beautiful place in the foyer of the clinic, right when you come in.
That's where you're headed right now.
The history of the Schindlbeck Clinic is shown next to it on the wall on the left.
We have built the clinic together for almost 80 years.
Thank God I was able to work with my father for a long time, even in the most difficult times.
We were always building.
The clinic was built in 1946 in the worst of times.
There was nothing.
When my father started building, it was the most rudimentary construction work, which over time all had to be demolished and replaced by new buildings.
Until 2014, there was not a single year in which some construction project – whether large or small – was carried out.
At the time, you said in an interview with Starnberger Merkur that the final state of development had been reached. Recently, however, you have been fighting to further expand or increase the size in order to be able to merge the Seefeld and Herrsching clinics at the current location in Herrsching.
When we first sold to Myriad, we still had plans to expand.
The building law is available.
There were a few options, but unfortunately Myriad had already looked at another solution and withdrawn from human genetics in Europe.
When the district took over, there was a common idea of merging the Seefeld and Herrsching clinics.
That was nothing new.
The discussion about this has been going on for 20 years.
It was very clear that there was now an opportunity to finally bring the two clinics together at one location.
We could have reflected Seefeld's medical offerings with the appropriate renovation measures.
The substructure was there.
We do the laboratory together anyway, as well as the diagnostics and the kitchen, etc. We would have had to accommodate a few more beds and two operating rooms.
The operating theaters in Seefeld are now being rebuilt.
I was very skeptical as to whether a new building on a greenfield site made economic sense with just these two disciplines and around 180 beds.
Later, as part of the federal government's new hospital policy, it became apparent that there was no longer any funding for new hospital buildings of this size and orientation.
That's why I found it a great pity that the original plan for the merger at the Seestrasse location was not pursued, as was actually agreed when I offered the clinic to the district.
Of course, it was important to me that the clinic remained and was not torn down.
If this had been discussed, I would definitely have found another way.
You haven't given up hope, have you?
After the purchase by the district, there were arguments that I find very difficult to understand as to why it wouldn't work for us.
I had made good suggestions.
It's not the first time I've built either.
We could have integrated Seefeld.
If we had done the same thing back then, the merger might almost be complete today.
We would have had an optimal basis for shaping the future.
Can you imagine that a new clinic will be built in Herrsching at some point?
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In my opinion, a new clinic is a long way off.
You have to juggle so many things.
On the one hand, it depends on whether the district administrator manages to acquire the necessary land. On the other hand, I also fear that the discussion will still arise as to where a new house should be built.
There has been talk about building a new house in the Weilheim-Schongau district for a long time.
There may also be a discussion about whether a larger clinic should be built for both districts, which would be more cost-effective than two individual clinics.
It's definitely a long road.
I admire Mr. Frey.
The property negotiations – we already had the issue with the high school – are really not subject to entertainment tax.
In any case, he is an absolute stroke of luck for the district.
Who knows – because he has reacted so quickly again, maybe a new building will work out after all.
I would wish it for everyone.
But do the people of Starnberg like the fact that almost everything is in Herrsching?
I don't know it.
Are big houses the solution?
Abandoning the small houses will not solve the problem.
Small houses, small deficits, big houses, big deficits.
You can see it in the municipal clinics in Munich, for example.
Huge deficits have been occurring there for almost decades.
Clinics this large are also much more difficult to organize and manage than a smaller facility.
We basically never had any deficits before the takeover, otherwise we wouldn't have survived at all.
However, the general conditions are now becoming increasingly difficult.
Why did you have to sell?
On the day my brother died, on May 22, 2012, it was clear that we could no longer continue to run the clinic in this situation.
On the other hand, it was an incredibly difficult time economically.
We were deep in an economic crisis.
From 2005 to 2009 we had the convergence phase, i.e. the adjustment of the hospital-specific base case flat rates.
We were the absolute losers there.
The hospitals have converged on a common state base case value of around 2,600 euros.
Our value was a little under 4000 euros.
Other clinics were sometimes 1,600 euros.
That also depended on our performance.
Among other things, we had the first dialysis department, had a highly specialized intensive care department, had the first CT and MRI, and were the first to have a cardiac catheter around the clock.
We had everything that was possible and maintained all the specialist departments that existed in internal medicine.
This partly goes back to our father, who was not only a highly decorated doctor, but also a professional politician.
During the convergence phase, we had to pay a lot of money back to the coffers, even though we had provided the necessary services.
And other clinics were upconverged.
They were suddenly rich and we were poor.
Of course we reacted, switched and focused more on cardiology and began accepting more foreign patients.
This allowed us to consolidate somewhat.
But developments also showed that I urgently needed to find a solution that would secure the future of the clinic.
This is how Myriad came into play.
This is how I found Myriad Genetics in a roundabout way and was able to avoid having to join a chain of clinics.
That would certainly have been negative for the clinic.
With Myriad we had a buyer who was highly solvent.
At that time, the Americans still had the patent for human genetic breast cancer examinations in the USA.
Myriad founded a large human genetics laboratory in Martinsried in order to gain a foothold in Germany.
From this we ran the Medical Care Center (MVZ) in Munich, where I am still the managing director.
The clinic was well positioned with Myriad until they withdrew from business in Europe in 2020.
In your opinion, what are the advantages of small clinics?
We're not that small.
For an internal medicine clinic that covers all areas, we are rather large.
For example, we treat around 300 acute strokes every year.
Most in the entire county.
We have the catchment area towards Fürstenfeldbruck and Dießen.
Fürstenfeldbruck is significantly larger than the Starnberg district, but only has the district clinic.
That's why we switch to Dachau, Landsberg and Herrsching.
In many areas, small clinics provide specialized medicine.
The biggest problem will be that as a clinic with only one specialty, we will no longer be allowed to operate an intensive care unit.
If this were actually carried out against all better judgement, the patient would notice it dramatically.
Then the recording times are delayed enormously.
That would be somewhat grotesque.
An Augsburg special clinic for obstetrics, the Josefinum, for example, which is a clinic specializing in neonatology and pediatric intensive care and treatment, would have to close without the support of the Ministry of Health, as it is essentially the only address in Swabia.
It's the same with us.
I mean, what stroke or heart attack patient needs immediate surgery?
This is the absolute exception.
Rather, it is about providing the optimal and necessary emergency treatment as quickly as possible within the shortest possible time window.
In the event of a necessary surgical procedure, specialist providers must be involved anyway.
Specialized, small houses are often much more efficient.
People are led to believe that the quality is better in large clinics.
But that is a misconception.
At least you can't generalize something like that.
It would be so easy if hospitals were simply paid based on performance instead of a flat rate.
So far, for example, the tariff increases have only been reflected in a small part of the budget.
In addition, the MDK (Medical Service of Health Insurance Companies) is constantly reducing hospital bills and imposing fines on hospitals.
It is clear that a hospital cannot then cover its costs.
True. When you were taken over by the district, you also had a tariff change.
Yes, with the takeover we switched to a public collective agreement, which resulted in an increase in personnel costs.
Of course, things have definitely gotten better for the employees from a financial perspective, including extensive retirement provision.
No question.
The federal collective agreement for private clinics is lower in many areas.
Are you glad they're out?
December 31st was my last day.
It's not easy, it will take a long time before I can detach emotionally.
I still hope that the clinic will continue to operate.
It may be that it is found.
That it is recognized that the clinic is simply necessary because it offers so much special medicine.
Not only for the district, but also for the neighboring districts.
We also have a lot of private patients, which is certainly our advantage.
Our occupancy has recently increased enormously again.
Like us, all clinics had to struggle with the fact that there were not enough nursing staff available and therefore capacity could not be utilized.
That's why it's a great success that we no longer have any temporary workers in the intensive care unit as of December 31st.
You can feel how much you care about the future.
I have a completely different connection to the house than others.
I don't blame anyone for that.
I was managing director for the district from 2020 until December 31st.
But I have also experienced for long, long decades what it is like when you are responsible for yourself - as the owner.
It was always important for me to know that I had people behind me.
The relationship with my employees was very warm.
Essentially all of them remained.
Have you been dismissed by the employees?
There were more than 150 people at the Christmas party.
It was all about my farewell.
It was a very emotional moment, the kind you would imagine if you have worked in a company for more than 40 years and built it up.
The Schindlbeck Clinic will be 80 years old in 2026.
Yes.
I was born here.
As a farewell gift, my employees gave me a booklet with pictures of what everything once looked like.
With ancient photos.
When Christmas parties still took place in the narrow hallway on Ward 3.
That's where we come from, an outsider can't understand that.
There was the family and there was the clinic.
Everything emerged from this microorganism.
It was just a well-respected family business.