Next Level cAIRe, So All Patients Can Breathe Easily
Interview with Torsten Bochannek, Managing Director of Fachkrankenhaus Coswig GmbH
Fachkrankenhaus Coswig specializes in the treatment of the entire spectrum of diseases in pneumology and thoracic surgery up to weaning, achieving high annual patient numbers who receive high-quality therapy from experts - precisely the approach that underlies the federal government's hospital reform. Managing Director Torsten Bochannek gave European Business insights into the challenges and perspectives of his institution.
"What the government intends to achieve with its hospital reform is something we have already been implementing at its core for many years," describes Managing Director Torsten Bochannek the strategic orientation of Coswig Specialty Hospital: As part of Recura Kliniken SE, his facility specializes in the entire spectrum of pneumology and thoracic surgery, from obstructive sleep apnea, which is treated in its own sleep lab, to metastatic bronchial carcinoma - disease patterns and therapies in which the clinic has developed exceptionally profound expertise thanks to the consolidation of large case numbers at one location, which in turn enables particularly high-quality treatment: conditions that are now to be promoted nationwide through the hospital reform. "We will also be affected by the legislative amendment," Torsten Bochannek nevertheless asserts, "especially by the multiple financial uncertainties, such as in the context of standby remuneration or the shifting of treatments to the outpatient sector, where adequate cost coverage is not always ensured. It would probably have been more sensible if a comprehensive health reform had preceded the hospital reform, which would have clarified these strategic issues first."
Trust over detailed bureaucracy
Torsten Bochannek sees this not least as a sign of a lack of trust among decision-makers, which has now also been incorporated into the political framework: "I get the impression that hospitals are often implicitly accused of not working honestly – hence the immense documentation obligations, which now tie up about 30% of the working time of the medical and nursing staff – time that is then of course missing for the patients. A significant part of the widely discussed shortage of skilled workers is thus simply homemade and could easily be rectified if the bureaucratic hurdles and regulations were reduced." The managing director of the specialist hospital advocates a reversed approach: a fundamental basis of trust – and sustainable sanctions if that trust is ever abused. But no matter what upheavals the current hospital reform will bring – it will not change the fundamental patient-centered attitude of his facility: "In our clinic located outside the gates of Dresden, with our dedicated doctors, nurses, and therapists, we always put people at the center of our actions – because that is exactly what has made us strong," underscores Torsten Bochannek.