EH 4_2015

BeneVision N22/19 turns to you For over 60 years, Mindray has been dedicated to improving the way you monitor patients. This time, the evolution that combines superior technology and clinical insight brings you the new masterpiece. The BeneVision Patient Monitoring System redefines your imagination and makes patient monitoring never as easy. It leverages your care to the patient in improved efficiency and safety by powerful clinical IT capability. It is a system that does not limit your impulse in pursuing clinical excellence. See more, with ease Medical minds think alike www.healthcare-in-europe.com 3NEWS & MANAGEMENT future of healthcare ess is unequal Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE) and its member organisa- tions from twelve countries is cur- rently financing an energy research project.’ ‘Up to 30% of hospital costs arise from secondary services, i.e. facil- ity management services. By com- paring FM processes in different hospitals it is possible to identify factors affecting cost, to uncover weaknesses and define optimisa- tion measures. The OPIK research project (Analysis and Optimisation of Facility Management Processes in Hospitals) has been investigating comprehensive benchmarking and optimisation potential since 2001, together with partners in industry, science and specialist associations, but particularly with a growing group of hospitals partners. The overriding objective is the best pos- sible, efficient support of the key processes, i.e. Healing and Care in the Hospital. The group also includes hospitals from Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria.’ ‘‘With research partners, the Institute has developed a comprehensive database of costs and services for all hospital facility management pro- cesses. The operating expenses and personnel expenditure are docu- mented on an annual basis from an FM perspective. The database is continuously updated. ‘New hospital partners can join at any time. The hospital partners receive an evaluation of their data compared to the average bench- mark. Two workshops are held every year.’ they pay too much for their insur- ance by comparison with how they use it and, worryingly, 48% say they have refused further consultation or treatment because of the costs involved. The survey also looked at atti- tudes to a potential restructuring of the current healthcare system to provide more equal care. Sixty% consider healthcare as a priority for government spending another 39% consider it very important, but not the most pressing. The respondents were split 50:50 as to whether the health service could undergo finan- cial reform without reducing the quality of care given. However, they are not resistant to change. One area that has almost unani- mous support is adoption of a geo- graphical quota system for newly qualified doctors, which restricts choice as to where they can set up practice and bases it on the particu- lar needs of a region. This is consid- ered as a practical way of reducing the geographical inequality in access to care. Other positively received solutions to improve the financial burden on healthcare include charg- ing a flat-rate fee to patients who use A&E services instead of visit- ing their family doctor; encouraging home hospitalisation for those with chronic illness, and reducing hospi- tal stays by increasing the amount of day-surgery. Likewise, the adop- tion of new e-medicine technolo- gies is considered a way to improve access and control costs. Many of the respondents (72%) are happy to be permanently satellite-tracked if they should have a chronic illness in order to receive rapid emer- gency care and 55% would consider sharing their medical data with, and receiving care/advice from their doctors via mobile telephone apps or similar e-health programmes. Other reforms generally consid- ered inevitable in order to main- tain high quality healthcare under financial constraint were to increase the number of minor/routine proce- dures performed by nurses, giving more responsibility to pharmacists and bringing an end to reimburse- ment for medicines available with- out a prescription. Conversely, any suggestion of changing the proportion of health- care paid for by the social security and increasing the amount from pri- vate insurance is firmly resisted. However, despite this strong desire, in the long term many feel it is inevitable if high quality healthcare is to remain a feature in France. Reference: Observatoire de l’égalité d’accès aux soins - Vague 2 – Mai 2015 FM expert Kunibert Lennerts is aprofessor at Karlsruhe Technology and Management in Construction Institute

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