Wolfsburg and neighboring cities: Revolutionary cooperation in clinics starts!

Wolfsburg and neighboring cities: Revolutionary cooperation in clinics starts!

An important chapter in the hospital landscape is emerging in Lower Saxony. Wolfsburg's mayor Dennis Weilmann recently highlighted the central role of cooperation between the three municipal hospitals. The aim is to optimize healthcare services and use valuable synergy effects that not only benefit the facilities themselves, but above all the patients. As braunschweig.de reports, close cooperation is a fundamental part of the strategy to sustainably strengthen health care in the region.

A key point of these efforts is the upcoming hospital reform, which requires all federal states to define service groups for their hospitals by the end of 2026. What does that mean specifically? Hospitals can only perform and bill for services if they have received the corresponding service group. Lower Saxony has until June 30, 2025 to apply for these groups. The prerequisite for this is not only quantitative but also qualitative evidence of human and equipment resources at the respective location.

Reform requirements and new financing models

The new regulations also bring about a fundamental change in the financing of hospitals. The introduction of the retention fee, which is part of a new financing system, is intended to ensure that hospitals in need receive a financial basis regardless of the service actually provided. According to bundesgesundheitsministerium.de, 60 percent of the previous flat rates per case flow into this reserve share, while 40 percent have to be earned through treatment cases. The complete refinancing of care according to the cost-coverage principle remains unaffected, which is extremely important for the facilities.

In addition, there will be surcharges for specific areas such as pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency care to ensure the availability of qualified treatments. The creation of these financial incentives is a central step towards actively using the mostly empty hospital beds again and improving the quality of care.

The path to optimal care

Lower Saxony has also already passed a new hospital law, which is intended to initiate more active planning in the area of ​​hospital infrastructure. According to vdek.com, the law requires hospital services to be concentrated in fewer locations. The aim is to align the availability and quality of medical care more closely with regional needs and the specific capabilities of the countries.

A central concern of the reform is that patients are treated in the hospital that is best suited to their specific needs - be it due to the staffing or the equipment available. The current shortage of staff in many facilities is another reason why coordination between hospitals needs to be improved. New cooperation models are needed here so that everyone involved can optimally benefit from the available resources.

The developments in Lower Saxony are a promising step towards better healthcare. It remains to be seen how individual hospitals will react to the reform and whether they can use the new system to optimize their services for the benefit of patients.