Service is a question of character

Clinics in Germany are under tremendous pressure to save money. ahr Service, a subsidiary of Bilfinger Berger, is helping medical institutions to optimize their costs, operations and services. And patients are benefiting too.

The new patient hardly has time to haul himself out of his car before Herbert Lehmann is there, bidding a hearty welcome to the Dörenberg-Klinik and offering his help. In this case, his help is much appreciated.After a riding accident that resulted in two operations, the patient is due to begin three weeks’ rehabilitation at the clinic in Bad Iburg. At the moment though, he is still hobbling around on crutches, so Lehmann is a more than welcome sight.

Clinics turn to the feel-good factor
Herbert Lehmann is what might be called the clinic concierge.With his obliging manner and his uniform— dark blue trousers and vest over a light blue shirt—he is the kind of figure you would expect to encounter in a hotel lobby, rather than in a clinic like this one. “To me a new patient is simply a new guest,” says Lehmann, and guests, after all, deserve to be treated with hospitality.

Herbert Lehmann is there to greet new arrivals at the foot of the steps leading up to the main entrance; he carries their bags, introduces them to the dietician, conducts them to the dining room where they can choose a table, then finally takes them to their room. Naturally, he has to field a multitude of questions:What about lunch? Where is the nearest elevator? Who will tell me when and where I have to go?

“The older guests in particular are sometimes a little unsure of themselves,” he reports. “Sickness, a strange environment, lots of new faces: it’s easier for them to settle in if there is someone there straight away to look after them.” Lehmann’s job was created halfway through this year. “We believe in the feel-good factor,” says clinic general manager Frank Schmees. The hospital sector in Germany is undergoing an upheaval as competition becomes fiercer. Managers like Schmees need new ideas on how to position their facility in the marketplace: external service providers can help. For example, Herbert Lehmann doesn’t work directly for the Dörenberg-Klinik—he is employed by ahr Service. The company, along with its 4,000-strong workforce, has been a part of Bilfinger Berger Facility Services since March 2006.

The Multi-Service Group now includes a service provider specializing in the health sector with a client list of around 200 institutions. The range of tasks undertaken by the new group member extends from cleaning and hotel-standard catering to commercial services. ahr handles invoicing, financial accounting, payrolls and controlling on behalf of service companies in the hospital sector.

Service providers lighten the load
Other services have a more immediate attraction for patients, for example, the “rolling restaurant” which ahr operates at several clinics. Rather than being pre-portioned, midday meals are delivered to the wards on a buffet trolley, allowing patients the opportunity to choose what they fancy from a range of dishes.

On some of the wards at the Dörenberg-Klinik, ahr has taken on a number of tasks which elsewhere fall to the nursing staff, even though they have little to do with nursing as such. According to a current study, qualified medical personnel in Germany spend as much as a third of their time on duties unrelated to patients or their medical care. Turning these tasks over to well-trained service staff enables nurses to concentrate on what they in turn are trained for, thereby taking some of the pressure off doctors.

Solving the financial plight
There are some 2,160 hospitals and clinics in Germany. According to auditors Ernst & Young, about a quarter of these are likely to disappear from the market by the year 2020. For reasons that include, among other things, the changeover to so-called flat rate case fees, Germany’s hospitals are under pressure. The health insurance companies now pay a fixed rate for many of the treatments and operations performed in acute cases—the actual duration of a patient’s stay in the given hospital is no longer the deciding factor. Aftercare centers such as the Dörenberg-Klinik can still charge for the days a patient spends in their care, but they are compelled to manage with substantially lower rates of payment than, say, ten years ago. The DKG, the umbrella organization representing German hospitals, is calling vehemently for more money to be pumped into the system. Not that this is likely to happen just now—and therefore economy is on the agenda. On the other hand, hospital manager Frank Schmees does not intend to focus on costs exclusively—in his opinion, there are already too many rehab clinics that have cut back drastically on their services. “In some cases all they offer is group therapy,” he says, “and that’s not the way.” Schmees intends to take an entirely different direction, by widening the clinic’s services and expanding the existing medical center together with doctors in private practice. A proportion of the rooms are to be redeveloped to a high standard in order to attract more private patients. Here too, ahr can be of assistance—one of its services is to run what are called “patient hotels” on behalf of its hospital clients. These facilities are designed to accommodate those who still qualify as hospital patients needing medical attention, but who are sufficiently recovered so as not to require intensive medical attention.

Enjoying contact with people
Following the success of pilot projects on some of its wards, the Dörenberg-Klinik now intends to deploy ahr personnel throughout to relieve its nursing staff. “Our experience has been positive in the extreme,” says nursing manager Margret Köhnen.What makes the difference is selecting the right personnel. “Service isn’t just something you learn.Whether you are good at it is a question of character,” emphasizes ahr customer care officer Marlies Bramann. “The most important thing is to enjoy contact with other people,” comments staff member Andrea Gerboth on her job on the ward. In contrast to the traditional white nurse’s uniform, her yellow and white striped blouse identifies her as an ahr Service employee. Not that the patients are usually bothered about the distinction: “They often call me ‘Nurse.’” Each morning Andrea Gerboth makes a list of which patients she has to escort at specific times to their particular treatment programs and when she has to pick them up again. In between she takes blood samples to the laboratory, collects urine samples, fetches a special mattress from the stores, and dispenses her gifts with generosity: ice for cooling, and plenty of kind words.

(Text: Michael Branners, Photos: Barbara Breyer)
Reporter Michael Branners, 38, had an immediate introduction to the concierge of the Dörenberg-Klinik on his arrival—Herbert Lehmann mistook him for a new patient, greeted him warmly and immediately offered to attend to his luggage. Barbara Breyer, 43, also photographed the production of pharmaceuticals at Sanofi- Aventis for this issue.