Volume 9, Issue 2 /2007

Paul Castel Preseident of the EAHM When, on the March 27, 1957, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy signed the Treaty of Rome for a European Economic Community (EEC) and EuropeanAtomic Energy Community (EURATOM), the basis of our European Union was thereby founded. 50 years later, the concept of an economic community has become a group of 27 st...

Results of the Study on Patient Satisfaction Measures The short study of the General Secretariat of the EAHM of November 2006 (see Hospital 1/2007) has been processed. Reminder: the members of the EAHM office were invited to respond to questions such as, for example, the existence of legal depositions in relation to the evaluation of patient satisfaction and the publication of eventual results, and...

Working Time The European Commission has written to all 27 EU governments asking them how they are complying with recent court rulings on the working time directive with its provisions on rest periods and a maximum 48-hour week. The extent to which national authorities respect key judgements from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has become more urgent after the failure of ministers last November t...

Ireland The Hospital Administration Wants to Reduce Private Hours The Irish hospital administration has just announced that it wants to reduce the income which medical specialists derive from private fees paid for the treatment of private patients. The medical specialists and the Irish hospitals are authorised to treat private patients, even if they work mainly for the Irish national health servi...

Authors: Kristof Eeckloo, LLM (corresponding author) Doctoral researcher, Centre for Health Services and Nursing Research Faculty of Medicine, K.U.Leuven Kapucijnenvoer 35 B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Ph: 0032/16/33.70.21 Fax: 0032/16/33.69.70 Email: [email protected] Luc Delesie, CE, MS, PhD Professor Centre for Health Services and Nursing Research Ph: 0032/16/33.69.65 or...

The economic pressures facing hospitals are set to intensify in the years ahead. Studies carried out by a range of consultancy companies predict that the viability of as many as one in four hospitals will be jeopardised in the next 15 years. It is highly unlikely that the German university hospital sector will emerge unscathed at the end of this process. The privatisation of patient care in the Universitie...

Author: Oliver Rong, Principal au Competence Center Pharma & Healthcare, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Berlin, Allemagne Email: [email protected] Public Private Partnership or Co-operation Models as a Solution The Current Position in Germany The Hospital Financing Law, KHG, of 1972 provided that investment in German hospitals would be allocated from public moneys (Sect...

Author: Hindrik Vondeling, PhD, Associate Professor, Institute for Public Health, Department of Health Economics, J.B. Winsloews Vej 9B DK 5000 Odense C, Denmark Email: [email protected] In many countries of the industrialised world, healthcare systems are faced with a common challenge for the future. An ageing population implies an increase in the number of elderly people with several complex, chro...

Author: Alfred Simon, PhD; Director of the Academy of Ethics in Medicine, Göttingen, Germany E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.aem-online.de/ Ethics consultations are becoming increasingly important in German hospitals. For example, hospitals must offer such consultations to qualify for KTQ certification (Co-operation for Transparency and Quality) or receive a proCum certificate. So...

Authors: Dr Arnaud Hansske, General Director of Arras Hospital; France Email : [email protected] Jean-François Cros, Deputy Director of Arras Hospital Email : [email protected] Alain Lecherf, Initiator of the project, Arras hospital, like all healthcare establishments, either public or private, had to evolve in line with expectations. In 2002, rather than a...

Authors: Dr Alain Pradignac, Therapeutic Nutrition Unit, CHU – Hautepierre, France Email : [email protected] Pr Jean Louis Schlienger, President of the Feeding-Nutrition Liaison Committee, CHU – Hautepierre, France Email : [email protected] Feeding, just like drinking, breathing or sleeping, is a fundamental need for all human beings. In the eve...

Author: Xenophon Karageorgiou Managing Director, General Hospital of Thebes E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] It happens all too often, although illogical, that a relocation from an old and smaller hospital to a new and bigger one takes place without modifications on the operational basis of departments obligations, numbers of all personnel categories (you still have the figures...

Author: Professor Wolfgang Riedel Scientific Director of the Institute for Hospital Studies Braunschweig, Germany www.ifk-braunschweig.de [email protected] A growing number of hospitals are finding it either necessary or desirable to replace their telephone systems. When the opportunity arises, many of them also consider whether adopting voiceover IP technology could be a feas...

Author: Georges Zanellato Email: [email protected] The problem of “no show” of patients to fixed appointments is an issue that a lot of healthcare organisations have to face. Moreover, it keeps increasing because it is self-perpetuating, and the overbooking principle, while helping, does not really solve the problem. What alternatives exist to tackle this problem? Queue Mana...

Author: Christian Hay Delegate Healthcare, GS1 Switzerland *On 16th February 2007, the Department of Health in the UK decides to join GS1 for all the NHS activities. In France a similar approach is currently in deployment by University Hospitals. The 6th conference of the GS1 HUG™ (Healthcare User Group) took place in Berlin from 30st January to 1st February. About 160 delegates came from all...

Author: Dr. John Halamka, Chief Information Officer, Harvard Medical Faculty, USA Medical School E-Mail: [email protected] Over the past 5 years, payers and providers in Massachusetts, US have implemented web-based, handheld and electronic medical record integrated e-prescribing. As a result of early pilots, the RxCollaborative and the e- Prescribing Gateway, Massachusetts was na...

Contact Information: Kees H. Polderman, MD, PhD Vice Chairman, Department of Intensive Care University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands Tel.: +3130 2503261 Fax: +3120 7620294 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] In recent years the issue of temperature management in critically ill patients, in particular those with neurological injuries, has gained increasing atten...

Author : Prof. Juraj Nemec Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica, Slovak Republic Email: [email protected] The Slovak government in the post- Soviet era started massive reforms, focusing on maintaining the access to, and increasing the quality of healthcare systems. Other priorities were to improve outcomes, especially life expectancy, and to control the costs of healthcare sy...