Hafid Rifi, CFO / Marco Walker, COO / Kai Hankeln, CEO / Dr med. Sara Sheikhzadeh, CMO / Joachim Gemmel, COO
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have a challenging year full of crises behind us. In particular, the start of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine will remain in our collective memory. The resulting energy shortages and high inflation have significantly impacted the healthcare sector and hospital operators. However, Asklepios was able to develop stably as a large healthcare group.
This is thanks to the great dedication of our employees. Under high pressure and in extremely stressful situations, they are there for our patients and make patient well-being their top priority. As the Management Board of Asklepios Kliniken, we would like to offer our employees our heartfelt thanks. With their empathetic determination and patient-centred actions, they are all symbolic of our key topic this year, “PioNear”.
Proximity to our patients is at the heart of our activities. To continue to guarantee the best possible medical care in the future, we want to advance key areas such as the shift towards outpatient care and digitalisation with innovative developments. We see the standardisation of quality and medical processes as essential in this context.
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»PioNear quickly and precisely epitomises Asklepios’ vision.«
The vision
As a large healthcare group, Asklepios guarantees a high degree of stability and strength even in difficult times. This enables us to gather momentum from the crisis. We want to break down existing structures in healthcare in order to think anew about innovative, needs-based treatment offers.
The interplay of smart digitalisation and improved quality of care always contributes to our patients’ well-being.
In the 2022 financial year, we made progress on a large number of future-oriented projects. These included the highly automated central warehouse in Bad Oldesloe, which will enable us to raise the entire Group’s procurement and logistics to a new level and better protect ourselves against future price fluctuations. We further developed and advanced the processes at our hospitals in line with our digitalisation strategy. For example, the digital patient record is now a permanent feature at our hospitals in Hamburg, and digitalisation has long since found its way into Asklepios’ operating theatres.
Science fiction in surgery
With the state-of-the-art technology of the Robotic Suite, we are bringing the medicine of the future into the operating theatre now already – as a nationwide pioneer.
Read storyThe foundations
In the 2022 financial year, Asklepios generated revenue of EUR 5,290 million and consolidated net income of around EUR 132 million. Our more than 67,000 employees cared for almost 3.6 million patients, over 2.8 million of whom were outpatients. The number of patients treated shows that we fulfil our responsibility to society even in difficult times.
In July 2022, Asklepios’ strategic orientation and economic resilience were substantiated by the early refinancing with a Schuldschein loan agreement on the capital market. The conclusion of a commercial paper programme for active liquidity management in December 2022 also shows that Asklepios is recognised as a valid, solvent company.
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»We have the tools and resources to handle the current situation and make a positive contribution to shaping the market.«
Ensuring care with the right conditions
Our economic strength is extremely important in the current demanding regulatory environment. The fundamental problem is that there is an excess supply of inpatient care throughout Germany as a result of too many small, non-specialised hospitals. This results in high resource requirements along with a low quality of treatment without sufficient specialisation.
Although the federal government’s proposal for a government commission on structural reform shows in principle that the responsible ministry recognises the problem, in our view, the envisaged reform and the planned changes in the remuneration system will just severely disrupt the economic situation at many hospitals. A de-economisation of the hospital market will not be achieved in this way and would not remedy the situation in any case, as the current reform plan does not solve the systematic underfunding of hospitals, but rather increases financial pressure on small hospitals. In our view, the right approach is to simplify structures in the healthcare system and bring about more competition and cost-effectiveness.
With our stable performance in the 2022 financial year, we are able to make comparatively high proprietary investments and ensure care at our healthcare facilities.
Smart implementation of digitalisation
In order to shape the future of medical care, digitalisation is a top priority for us, and not just in the treatment of our patients. By automating documents, processes and applications, we free up our employees’ available resources and thus increase the time they can dedicate to our patients.
In the 2022 financial year, we fully implemented the digital patient record at our hospitals in Hamburg. All data are stored in a complete and structured form, and the treatment process is documented transparently. The doctors and nurses providing treatment can access the record quickly and easily from any location.
The paperless hospital
Tablets instead of paper files? This is already a reality for us. The M-KIS system not only leads to more efficient processes, but also eases the burden on employees.
Read storyResponsibility for our employees
Our employees are our biggest success factor. We know that everyday work at our healthcare facilities involves a very heavy workload due to the ongoing staff shortages and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Regulated minimum staffing levels and enormous documentation requirements exacerbate the structural problems.
Asklepios is actively tackling the issue of the shortage of qualified staff. With twelve training centres and almost 3,600 training positions, we are one of the biggest training companies in the German healthcare system. We want to offer our employees initial and ongoing training and of course keep them with us on a long-term basis. We are also delighted to have recruited around 800 international nurses from 39 countries for our hospitals in 2022.
Responsibility for our patients
Having time for our patients and being close to them is immensely important to us. Optimisation of the care and treatment we offer is always based on our patients’ needs and requirements. In this context, expanding outpatient care and developing innovative services is particularly important to us. Our vision is to establish the “outpatient clinic” as a new level of care in order to ensure the provision of medical care in rural regions, too, while also countering the shortage of qualified staff.
We care: innovative thinking
Four people, four different ways to contribute to our patients’ well-being. What they all have in common is that they practise their profession with empathy and innovation.
Read storyResponsibility for our environment
Our responsibility as a healthcare provider is towards our patients, our employees and the environment. For us, sustainability therefore means combining environmental, social and governance aspects. In the 2022 financial year, we adopted a Group-wide ESG strategy. In addition to CO₂ reduction, the goal of climate neutrality, waste reduction and water consumption, this also covers our key topics of patient safety, patient satisfaction and employee health.
CR Report
As one of the leading healthcare providers, we have a great responsibility – for our patients, our employees and society. Our actions are based on our guiding principles: medical quality, innovation and social responsibility.
To CR ReportPioNear: progress from a sense of responsibility
We continuously develop our own organisation and the treatments that we offer. With long-term investments and a sustainable perspective, we will play our part in improving our healthcare system – both for the patients and for our employees.
We look forward to continuing to shape medical progress in the future and fulfilling our responsibility as a “PioNear”.
The Management Board of Asklepios Kliniken
Hamburg, April 2023
Kai Hankeln, CEO
Hafid Rifi, CFO
Marco Walker, COO
PD Dr. Med. Sara Sheikhzadeh, CMO
Joachim Gemmel, COO