New concepts for hospitals:
A new wave of mergers among hospitals?
Are we now going to see the long-anticipated transfer of municipal hospitals into private hands? “Due to the strained budget situation of many municipalities, it is not a question of if, but when, further privatisation will occur,” says Rhön Klinikum Board Chairman Wolfgang Pföhler assuredly. Rhön Klinikum is considered a pioneer in hospital privatisation in Germany. His colleague on the Board, Dr Christoph Straub, will provide a detailed analysis and forecast of the German and European market in his talk “Private or public? – Ownership trends within the German and European hospital market” at the “Leaders in health care” conference in Nuremberg. The conference will take place within the scope of the “Hospital Build Europe 2011” trade fair and congress.
Trade fair and congress “Hospital Build” in Europe for the first time
The trade fair and congress “Hospital Build” has already established it presence in Asia and the Middle East over the last two years. From 4–6 April 2011, in Nuremberg, the trade fair and congress will now offer European directors, CEOs and CFOs of hospitals, as well as suppliers and service providers in the areas of process, project and change management, business development, procurement and logistics, a new cross-border platform for exchange and discussion. The affiliated three-day congress featuring international speakers will focus, in a parallel series of conferences, on the topics of design, building and refurbishment of hospitals, as well as healthcare management, process optimisation, non-medical services and patient hotels.
“Here, European exchange and discussion will actively push forward further development that will not only benefit hospital operators and planners, but also medical personnel and patients,” says Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller, from Nickl & Partner, about the upcoming trade fair. A Chair Professor at Technische Universität Berlin, she is among the many speakers at the congress and will talk about new approaches and strategies for meeting the current and future challenges facing hospitals. “The activities of hospitals are going to be transformed, and this will have an impact on their conception, organisation and architecture,” affirms Awn Jalal Sharif, from the Supreme Council of Health, in Qatar. At the trade fair and congress, he will discuss eight trends and reasons that demonstrate how hospitals in their present form have not kept pace with the times.
Leaders in healthcare
At the Leaders in Healthcare conference, international experts will discuss issues related to healthcare policy and management. For instance, Frédéric Dubois from Médi-Partenaires, France’s largest operator of private clinics, will report on trends in restructuring and turnaround management in the French hospital market. Eke Zijlstra from MC Atrium, one of the leading general hospitals in the Netherlands, will provide an insight into the Dutch hospital market. Prof. Dr Thomas Ittel, from the University Hospital Aachen, will discuss the issue: “How to manage a European perspective?” Ittel will explain how a German hospital in a border region has started on the path to becoming a European-oriented and economically efficient medical enterprise. “In connection with the impending transformation process, it is not only necessary to stand back and take stock of the initial situation, but also to take account of a concise set of values: factuality, transparency, efficiency through joint action, personal responsibility, quality and swiftness,” is how Ittl summarises the core idea of the concept.
Dr Krzysztof Kazmierczak, from the Kliniken an der Paar, will point out the perspectives for growth in the European market in the face of high competitive pressure and government regulations. Frank-Michael Frede, from VAMED, will present what efficient facility management should look like by taking the example of Charité. Jürgen Zimmermann, from Arcadis, will highlight that hospital managers must keep a close eye on the quality of facility management service providers: “The management of medical facilities should not be new territory for facility management firms,” emphasises the expert. “In my view, there is still considerable ground to be made up in this field,” he continues. Zimmermann will give a talk in the parallel conference “Hospital design, build and upgrade,” also on the topic of facility management.
Other managers from leading European hospitals will share practice-oriented insights within the Leadership conference, for instance, Dr Wolfram von Pannwitz from Berlin’s Charité, Dr Axel Paeger from the Swiss Ameos Group, who will explain and compare innovative capacity utilisation concepts in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as Olaf Tkotsch from the Scandinavian Capio clinics. Additional topics to be covered will include marketing, personnel retention and quality management.
The event will be opened by Dr Markus Söder, Bavarian State Minister of the Environment and Public Health.
Hospital Build Europe trade fair and congress
4–6 April 2011
Nuremberg, Germany
