Medica2015_Mittwoch

ULTRASOUND DEDICATED MRI HEALTHCARE IT ULTRASOUNDULTRASOUNDULTRASOUNDULTRASOUNDULTRASOUNDULTRASOUND DEDICATED MRIDEDICATED MRI HEALTHCARE IT DEDICATED MRI HEALTHCARE IT DEDICATED MRI HEALTHCARE ITHEALTHCARE ITHEALTHCARE IT www.esaote.com Quality made in Europe WEDNESDAY @ MEDICA 7 EH @ MEDICA No 3 2015 money for good products? How Blue is your hospital? Today’s hospitals must achieve sustained efficiency on an economic, ecological, qualitative and social level. However, only those that know their own weaknesses can act. Interviewed by Sascha Keutel, Jens Schneider, head of Siemens Healthcare Consulting, introduces Blue Hospital certification, conceived to scrutinise an entire hospital. ‘Blue Hospital is an integrative con- cept designed to harmonise ecology, economy and efficiency with peo- ple’s wellbeing,’ Jens Schneider, head of Siemens Healthcare Consulting, explains. ‘We provide hospitals with the means to enable them to cre- ate synergies from the components innovation, technological progress and the responsible use of natural resources. ‘The procedure was developed by the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies of DIN and VDE – the organisation responsible for the development of standards in elec- trotechnology, electronics and infor- mation technology – and is used by the VDE, the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies, i.e. the testing and certification organisation, for certifi- cation implementation. ‘Siemens Healthcare is the first service provider to be accredited with Blue Hospital certification and can therefore provide advice to hospitals based on the Blue Hospital standard. ‘The analysis enables hospi- products manufacturers often have a hard time answering questions concerning reimbursement for their own products. Training of sales teams on product-specific features and clini- cal applications are not sufficient to conquer the hospital market. A sales representative needs in-depth knowl- edge on the G-DRG system to be taken seriously. Who is my customer and what does the decision path look like? These are important questions.’ And you provide the answers for the manufacturers? ‘My institute brings manufacturers and hospitals together. Seamless and efficient use of innovations can only be ensured when both players access the same resources – this is the only way to create a mutually beneficial relationship between hos- pitals and manufacturers. Thus we have developed two services: the OPS-Guide* and the NUB-Börse* – NUB exchange. Both are designed to support on the one hand the manu- facturer with communication with the hospital and, on the other, the hospital to position itself among the competitors.’ What exactly is the OPS-Guide? ‘It takes time to test whether the use of a medical product is feasible under very specific local conditions – unavailable time in most hospitals. This might lead to the implementa- tion of a new therapy being refused. Before, only specifically trained staff knew which OPS or ICD-10 codes are relevant for the assignment of a DRG and which are not. Our new OPS-Guide takes you through this jungle: Is an OPS code taken into consideration in a DRG – if so, which one? Which data (LOS, cost weight, partition, etc.) are included in the DRG? Does the code provide for a supplement to the reimbursement? Which product should be linked to which OPS? To which cost centre should the product be assigned? The OPS-Guide answers all these ques- tions – by manufacturers and users – on a single platform.’ You aim to make a rather opaque constellation a bit more transpar- ent. How can this help manufac- turers, who employ entire teams to navigate the complex relation- ships between industry, trade, hospitals, insurers and politics, and also create ever new inter- faces? ‘We want to create transparency because today the post-launch pro- cess is indeed highly non-transpar- ent. This problem is for medium-sized enterprises above all – they find it very difficult to position themselves in the G-DRG system. They don’t have such teams and neither do start-ups. This is where our second service comes in: hospitals that use innovative products, receive a reim- bursement of the associated costs via a DRG or a supplementary pay- ment. However, this process needs to be planned early and meticulously, otherwise the decision on the eligi- bility for reimbursement might be significantly delayed. We accompany the entire process from the launch of innovative medical products down to the integration of costs incurred by this launch into the system. This helps ensure market success.’ How do hospitals benefit from this OPS-Guide? ‘The OPS-Guide helps hospitals to find out, quickly and simply, which OPS is to be used with which sup- plies. Thus you have correct coding tals to identify hith- erto unused sav- ings potentials. Blue Hospital is therefore an effective tool, also not least for smaller and m e d i u m - size hospitals that look to achieve a sus- tainable impact on their processes.’ How is the certification carried out? ‘The first step is for the hospital to systematically collect the all-impor- tant key figures in ecology, economy and patient quality. In the second step we, the certified service pro- vider, visit the hospital and carry out on-site investigations, analyse the data and determine a key score for sustainability for the entire hospital. ‘This score is at the top of the pyr- amid. On the level below we visual- ise the performance of the individual sectors, i.e. the subareas of quality, efficiency and environment. We look at 40 individual subject areas: the spectrum ranges from heating and hot water supply right down to employee and patient satisfaction. For an even more detailed overview this can then be split into around 400 individual subject areas at the base of the pyramid. ‘The hospital is given an evalu- ation of its status quo. This results from a benchmark for hospitals of similar size and structure. ‘Building on this, we work out a concrete catalogue of measures with a quantified potential for improve- ment. The hospital can then start to implement specific improvements to achieve a higher score.’ What is the motivation to achieve certification? ‘Increasing healthcare system expend- iture puts hospitals under enormous financial pressure. The times when simple solutions were enough are over. In some other countries, such as the USA and Sweden, reimburse- ment is no longer processed via a flat-rate system based on the type of treatment, but also according to treatment quality as perceived by a patient. In Germany there is a similar trend. Cutting staff or infrastructure no longer achieves the desired effect. ‘It also doesn’t help to optimise specific areas without first looking at the overall picture. Only once all areas have been systematically inves- tigated can meaningful optimisation potentials be identified. It’s usually fairly easy to find potentials when looking at the energy supply, and also for procedural areas such as staff, patient and logistics workflow. ‘Some hospitals want to achieve certification prior to construction or refurbish- ment projects to guarantee efficiency and sustainability right from the start. But certification also makes sense for negotiations around grants and for general external affairs.’ After ten years in out-patient services, Nicole Eisenmenger enrolled in a four-year evening course in healthcare economics. Simultaneously she switched from healthcare provision to become a sales and purchasing manager in the industry. Her job focus shifted as reimbursement issues became increasingly important. Her studies – which provided insights into hospital economics – and her industry experience helped her recognise weaknesses in the system. The difficult interaction between the hospital and healthcare industry, and non-transparency of the system, prompted her to found the Reimbursement Institute. A business management graduate from the Phillips University Marburg in 2001, Jens Schneider became a consultant for banks and at consulting firms until 2004, when he became head of planning at Aachen University Hospital and a business consultant for several other hospitals. In 2008 he joined Siemens AG (now Siemens Healthcare GmbH) and became principal of Siemens Healthcare Consulting in 2011. As a hospital management expert he manages consulting projects in strategy, processes and infrastructure for healthcare facilities worldwide. IN PURSUIT OF EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY The circular Green+Radar that indicates the status of the environmental/ sustainability and efficiency objectives At the 2013 Germany Land of Ideas awards ceremony in London heter-guided heart valve implants, new, s – somehow. Thus manufacturers need to ucts will be reimbursed. New diagnostic and tem based on the analysis of older methods. nmenger, Director of the Reimbursement t of medical products as a marketing rency in the system. Continued on page 8 Qual ity Env ironment Efficiency EH @ MEDICA No 32015

Pages Overview