Strategy and Management

Since 2014, the first operator-open network partnership of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG has been in place under the brand “Wir für Gesundheit” (We Stand for Health). Under this framework, we offer all insured patients together with our partners, under an employer-financed supplementary insurance scheme, a guaranteed quality level as well as additional outpatient and inpatient healthcare services at the facilities of the partner network. In the medium term, the network is to be expanded into a national, operator-open network of qualified providers.

Offering cutting-edge medical care for everyone and safeguarding it into the future are both a mandate and obligation for us. That said, we do face tremendous challenges: given demographic changes and the increasing rate of morbidity in old age, we expect rising demand for hospital services in the coming years. This demand will continue to rise since – fortunately – the range of medical skills and services being brought about by advances in treatment, medical technology and pharmacology is broadening. But growing demand for healthcare services is set against the declining number of contribution payers under the statutory health insurance system. In actual fact, the rate of increase in statutorily influenced revenues has been outstripped by the rise in the costs of healthcare delivery for years. This trend is likely to continue in future as well. This will translate into increasingly scarce resources being available within the healthcare system. Within the context of this development we want to help ensure that the German healthcare system remains efficient and secure in future as well.

We see making sparing use of natural resources and protecting the environment as an obligation that ties in directly with our entrepreneurial activity. That is because good health and human well-being are only possible if our environment remains intact. By taking care of the environment, we contribute directly towards the well-being of our patients, employees and partners in society. An energy and environmental management concept that puts the emphasis on efficiency and using resources sparingly makes not only ecological but also economic sense. In this connection we focus above all on sustainable energy management. We continually invest in innovative processes with a view both to generating energy and to reducing our consumption. At the same time, cutting energy costs is also in keeping with our understanding of economically responsible corporate governance. We manage our resources sparingly so that we have all the more available for ensuring high-quality medical care.

One strategic goal of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is implementing the entrepreneurial and health-policy vision of national full-service networked medical care. In future, each patient is to receive state-of-the-art and high-quality medical care tailored to his needs. The guiding principle here is rationalisation before rationing. The conceptional idea behind that is to exhaust all efficiency reserves while ensuring healthcare delivery of at least equal or better medical quality. This will be achieved by targeted referral of patients to the place and type of treatment. For example, generally hospitals will increasingly specialise in indications based on aspects of economic efficiency and quality. This will mean that to receive optimum care patients may be referred to a national place of treatment. In this way, patient care can be optimised while preventing the wasteful use of resources.