HealthCareBrain

Reduce prices? In any case! But how?

HealthCareBrain — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 08:44:51 +0000

Costs are rising. Everywhere. We notice this privately.
So we must also notice it in purchasing(?!)

Is that really the case?
📉 Inflation is falling in Germany and the USA
📉 Compared to 2022, global market prices for metals such as titanium, nickel and aluminum as well as for plastics and natural fibers such as cotton or rubber have fallen considerably*
📉 The cost of fossil raw materials for energy production, especially natural gas and oil, has also fallen, resulting in significantly lower energy costs.

📊 Yes, we have not yet reached the 2019 level in most indices.

Shouldn’t the purchasing department still be demanding significant price reductions? Yes, says our podcast guest and long-time negotiation trainer and editor-in-chief of the information service #Einkaufsmanager Hans-Christian Seidel.

Hans-Christian Seidel is a guest at HealthCareBrain for the second time

I talked to him about the current market situation on the #commodity markets and typical arguments for price increases in #purchasing.
Which ones does he let pass? Which ones can he only smile about? Find out!

His plea: Purchasing must become “bolder” and take more time for negotiations

You can find our conversation exclusively on the HealthCareBrain Podcast on Spotify, Apple and everywhere else where podcasts are available.

—–
July 2024 vs. Apr. 2022: Titanium -62% / Nickel -48% / Aluminum -27% / Polypropylene -12% / Cotton -49% / Rubber -6% / Natural gas -57% / Crude oil (Brent) -16% / Source: tradingeconomics.com

Change is urgently needed. We all know that. 🚨

HealthCareBrain — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 08:48:46 +0000

😪 The Federal Ministry of Health is drafting one law after another.

😪 The players complain about the regulatory frenzy and financial difficulties.

😪 Employees no longer know how to cope with all the bureaucracy and are suffering under constant financial pressure.

❓ But who makes sure that the processes are designed in an interdisciplinary and interprofessional way so that the work can be done effortlessly? 🏥💼

❓ Who is digitizing work processes? Who will ensure that AI finds its way into the hospital to take over repetitive work? 🤖🖥️

Oh yes, right, there was no time for that! But there was time to get annoyed? 😤

Take your time and work on the processes.

Remember: Without end-to-end processes, there is no digitalization, no workload reduction, no efficiency, no success. 💪✨

Aver: It’s not so easy to think in terms of end-to-end processes when you’ve been thinking in silos for years.
Train your team to think in terms of processes.

And: it takes patience, perseverance and a lot of know-how to bring order to complex systems.

Good luck and have a good start to the week.

Image created with AI from Canva

🤔 How do hospitals actually bill? 🤔

HealthCareBrain — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 08:54:42 +0000

🤔 How do hospitals actually bill?

🤔 Is every service paid for? Can any hospital do what it wants?

🤔 Are there penalties for poor quality?

🤔 Did you know that hospital services are paid for differently from state to state?

🤔 How are innovative services paid for?

And of course we also explain how the DRG works.

So if you’ve always wanted to know more about how a hospital is financed, then listen to the latest podcast from HealthCareBrain.

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3pu2Vjhi5d1273j8sQHJIN

At Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/healthcarebrain/id1697013998

Photo: Sonja Müller

18: Reduce costs by only using what you really need.

HealthCareBrain — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 07:08:14 +0000

Behave sustainably:
🚯 Avoid waste, 🚯
Reduce costs 💰
🌳 and protect the environment. 🌳

In the latest knowledge bite, you can find out what causes waste in hospitals and we give you tips on what you can do about it.

💫💫We hope you enjoy reading it. 💫💫

Sincerely, Kerstin and Lennart Eltzholtz

What experiences have you had?

18_knowledge_bite_reduce_costs_quantity6197 Download

#HealthCareBrain#Krankenhausmanagement #Nachhaltigkeit

Quo Vadis hospital form? New podcast episode of HealthCareBrain

HealthCareBrain — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

We haven’t chosen an easy topic for our latest podcast…Hospital Transparency Act and hospital reform

At its meeting on February 21, 2024, the Mediation Committee agreed to confirm the Hospital Transparency Act passed by the German Bundestag. What are the benefits of this law and how does it relate to the hospital reform?

We discuss where the reform stands from our point of view, explain the objectives, comment on the current criticism and the different perspectives. We do our best to do justice to the different perspectives on this complex project.

😉Of course, you’ll also find out my very personal opinion.😉

The following quotes show how different the opinions and positions are:

“Hospital reform is back on track.” Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on January 30, 2024 And further: “These two reforms are existential – both for patients and for hospitals”

This refers to the Transparency Act and the hospital reform.

Meanwhile, kma Online headlines: Transparency law causes anger

The German Hospital Federation headlines “Missed opportunity – insolvency wave will not be stopped.”

Bernadette Rümmelin from the Catholic Hospitals comments on the hospital reform agreement that “… a law is being pushed through with a crowbar that will not bring any real improvements”

Dr. Jens Schick, CEO of Sana Kliniken AG: “Sees a significant distortion of competition between hospital operators”

We look forward to your feedback and questions at info@healthcarebrain.eu

You can listen to our podcast episode here:
Spotify: Zttps://https://lnkd.in/euRS5aFC

Apple: https://lnkd.in/eKYmWPxJ
And everywhere else where there are podcasts!

Have fun listening!

Procurement Reimagined Podcast Episode with me

HealthCareBrain — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:05:08 +0000

I had the wonderfull opportunity to speak to Daniel Barnes on his podcast Procurement Reimagined by Gatekeeper. Daniel and I were discussion about the challanges of Healthcare Procurement.

Why is healthcare procurement something worth talking about?
💡 Supply Chain Management for hospitals has the goal to secure high quality products for a reasonable pricing so hospitals can focus on patient treatment.
Characteristics of healthcare services are:
💡Hospitals provide services for patients, which you cannot produce in stock
💡The services are difficult to plan e.g. emergency treatments
💡The patient must cooperate in order to achieve the quality of outcome (compliance).
Physicians have individual freedom
💡 Hospitals are expert organizations
💡 Physicians have therapeutic freedom
Hospitals are highly regulated
💡 Hospitals are subject to a legally regulated financing system
💡 hey cannot set prices themselves in many healthcare systems, e.g. Germany

Those are just some characteristics that influence procurement
💡 Due to the individual freedom of physicians and their expertise and reputation. Hospital Management is often more dependent on the physicians then the other way around.
💡 Physicians might leave the hospital and work elsewhere if they have to compromise to much. This often leeds to a lack of strategic targets
💡A lack of company vision and strategy leads to a lack of procurement framework
💡Depending on the size and range of treatment hospitals need up to 80k different medical products and pharmazeuticals
💡 Medical experts sometimes have a preference for certain medical products they are used to
💡Which makes standardization and cost saving challenging
💡 Procurement will not be allowed to decide which medical products will be used.

❗ Procurement is in a role of a moderator trying to find the sweet spot between quality, usability and cost.

You can listen to the episode here:

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gQiGVtgq

Apple: https://lnkd.in/gBEbhCFi

I hope you enjoy the episode with Daniel and myself. There will be an english eBook series about healthcare procurement together with Dr. Kerstin Stachel coming out next year! So stay tuned and follow HealthCareBrain to get constant updates and additional values. Show translation

16: Sustainability in the supply chain

HealthCareBrain — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:59:20 +0000

💡 Why should hospitals address the issue of sustainability?
💡 What does the legislation require with hashtag#LkSG and hashtag#CSRD?
💡 Hashtag#sustainability strategy vs. individual measure
💡 Everyone has good ideas, but how do you get commitment and strategy into your sustainability measures?

Many thanks to Fiona Walter and Clemens Jüttner for the great input!

Are you interested in this topic? Then be sure to listen to our latest HealthCareBrain podcast episode:

🎧 https://lnkd.in/eSuHNFBN
🎧 https://lnkd.in/eD8cip9h

Dr. Kerstin Stachel Nicole Krojer Future Hospital Purchasing (ZUKE)

(11) Knowledge Bite No. 16 I Sustainability in the supply chain | LinkedIn

17: Where does the money come from?

HealthCareBrain — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:53:34 +0000

The healthcare system is complex. We’re probably not telling you anything new! But what we can tell you is how to gain access to such a magical organization as the hospital.

Our KnowledgeBite No. 17 is all about one thing: money.
❓ How are German hospitals financed?
❓ What does dual financing mean?
❓ What is a DRG, a ZE or a NUB?

With the hospital reform announced by the Federal Ministry of Health, Karl Lauterbach also announced major changes to the financing of inpatient services.
👉 Are we going back to the cost recovery system?
👉Where does the reform start in terms of change?
👉What is our opinion on the announced reform plans?

Are you interested in this topic? In our latest Hashtag#Podcast episode Hashtag#HealthCareBrain, we discussed how hashtag#hospital financing works and what changes can be expected with the announced hospital reform, and we went into more detail in our practical book “Supply it”.

Did you like the article? Then why not support us with a Like and share the article in your network.

We hope you enjoy reading Kerstin & Lennart

To the knowledge bite: (11) Activities | Lennart Eltzholtz | LinkedIn

Purchase of services

HealthCareBrain — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 07:40:33 +0000

Is there a department in Purchasing that deals with the purchase of services? No? Is that what the purchasers in administrative supplies or strategic purchasing do on the side? Does the management like to do this themselves?

Contracts for services

This is not only typical for hospitals, but also in industry, but it is not appropriate. After all, contracts for services are special and choosing the right service provider can be very easy or very difficult, depending on how you look at it:

It’s quite simple, because most users, whether technical staff or management, have clear preferences and ideas about who should get the job. The necessity is based on special know-how or references.
Quite difficult, because these preferences have to be broken down into objective criteria. Is the clinic subject to public procurement law? If this is not the case, good conditions must be negotiated, even though the service provider knows that the management/engineer and the engineer etc. really want him.

Find out how to do it right in this article: Purchasing services – Health&Care Management (hcm-magazin.de)

Image by Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay

12: What makes a hospital so special?

HealthCareBrain — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:43:04 +0000

The world of hospitals is over-regulated, bureaucratic and the laws are almost impossible to implement. Anyone who feels that they do not understand the laws of the German healthcare system is in good company.

On the other hand, working in a hospital is a wonderful job if you love complexity and variety and want to work with committed people.

To be successful, you have to understand what distinguishes a hospital from a normal company.

1. hospitals are service providers

Services cannot be produced in stock and how good they are is decided at the moment they are provided. Many things cannot be planned, as every illness is very individual.

In short, quality depends on how efficient the employees are at that moment, but also on how well the patient cooperates. If they do not tell you what pre-existing conditions they have or what medication they are taking, unexpected complications can arise. In addition, if materials or medication are missing at the time of treatment, for example, this directly impairs the quality of treatment.

2. a patient is not a customer because he may not be able to make decisions or provide information, for example because he is unconscious or confused. Processes should be geared exclusively to the needs of the patient. Remember: patient orientation is more than customer orientation.

3. hospitals are expert organizations

A process can only be standardized to a limited extent, as you are dependent on the individual know-how of an expert. Certain services cannot be provided without certain experts, e.g. no care for seriously injured patients without hand surgeons, no childbirth without midwives, etc.

Experts are aware of their value and may use this position to assert their own interests.

4 Ownership: Who owns a hospital?

Private hospitals have different legal frameworks and objectives than public or church hospitals, for example. A public building, for example, is always subject to public procurement law, a private building only in exceptional cases.

5. basic care vs. maximum care providers

Hospitals are differentiated according to their range of services. A university hospital and a maximum care provider offer almost everything, a primary care provider only basic services. The definition is not clear and is the subject of deliberations on hospital reform.

6 Freedom of therapy versus economic efficiency

On the one hand, the doctor should do everything possible to help the patient. On the other hand, it should only provide services that are cost-effective. (see 1st comment)

7. stakeholders: Last but not least: In a hospital, you are the servant of many masters and unfortunately these sometimes have very different demands.

More on this in episode 6 of our podcast:

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eSuHNFBN

#HealthCareBrain