Healthy financing ensures the best possible patient care

As a specialized medical care center with over 750 beds, Magdeburg hospital plays an important role in the region’s healthcare provision. Around 1,900 employees care for more than 72,000 patients every year, with specialists from various disciplines working hand in hand across 23 departments and institutes. They provide extensive medical care using state-of-the-art technology. When it came to upgrading the operating theaters with surgical robots and related equipment, the hospital called on the expertise of CHG-MERIDIAN.

CHG-MERIDIAN, the technology management and finance company, analyzes and improves the use of healthcare technology in hospitals by developing customized business concepts that reduce costs and risks while freeing up financial resources. When Magdeburg hospital put the procurement of new surgical robots and equipment out to tender in 2020, it was CHG-MERIDIAN that submitted the most compelling proposal and won the contract. The hospital was looking for a service provider to manage the selected suppliers and create a comprehensive financing solution that combines all invoices for products and services in one monthly instalment. “The aim was to find a single provider who offered as many services as possible around the financing of new medical equipment,” said Olaf Schöning, Head of Healthcare Technology at Magdeburg hospital.

One lease model to cover everything

This type of service bundle can often be a challenge when it comes to healthcare technology procurement. “Generally, these are complex products provided by a range of highly specialized vendors,” says Dirk Engelhardt, Senior Key Account Manager for Healthcare Technologies at CHG-MERIDIAN and the customer relationship manager for Magdeburg hospital. The latest plan is to procure two da Vinci surgical systems, highly specialized technology for IT-assisted, minimally invasive procedures. This represents an investment in the future, as expanding the range of operations on offer increases the hospital’s attractiveness to stakeholders and promises patients less invasive operations and shorter recovery periods.

Precision technology like this also requires special equipment in the operating theaters, such as smoke evacuation for high-frequency surgery and instrument and operating table sterilizers that move in line with, and are controlled by, the robots. “We had to deal with four different healthcare equipment vendors in total,” says Engelhardt of the initial challenge. For the tender, CHG-MERIDIAN developed a comprehensive financing and invoicing solution that was tailored to the requirements, dealt with all the suppliers and took care of all the processing. “We were very impressed by the solution. In fact, CHG-MERIDIAN was the only finance provider able to meet the complex brief in full,” Schöning says. He particularly welcomed the transparency of all costs, including those for servicing and repair, throughout the product lifecycle.

Investing in the future without committing capital

To deliver the one-stop project financing solution, Engelhardt and his team coordinated the contracts with the relevant suppliers and created a master lease agreement for all products and services. This tailored model has the advantage that Magdeburg hospital can cover all services with a fixed monthly instalment, meaning that it can plan future costs with a degree of certainty. Above all, it ensures that the hospital can invest in new equipment without tying up capital, allowing the hospital to remain flexible in the future. “Our mission is to provide the best possible care for our patients,” says Schöning. “Which is why it is important to us to ensure that our healthcare equipment is always state-of-the-art. The financing solution from CHG-MERIDIAN allows us to do just that, despite budget constraints and growing pressure on costs in healthcare.”

The partnership between Magdeburg hospital and CHG-MERIDIAN will continue to focus on making the best use of limited financial resources to ensure the highest level of patient wellbeing. Topics on the agenda include the convergence of healthcare technology and IT, the upgrading of communications, the integration of new suppliers, and the harmonization of a wide range of service scenarios.

Kerstin Winkelmann, Abteilungsleiterin Allg. Dienstleistungen am Klinikum Magdeburg

Kerstin Winkelmann, Head of the General Services Department at Magdeburg hospital

“In CHG-MERIDIAN, we have found a partner who specializes in finding the best possible financing solutions for every requirement. In our case, it is a one-stop project financing solution that takes the burden of negotiating with vendors off our hands while providing maximum transparency. It gives us the certainty we need in order to invest in the future of our healthcare technology – for the benefit of our patients”.