Annual result achieved with slight plus / All-time high in third-party research funding
MHH stays on course in 2022. Copyright: Karin Kaiser / MHH
Hannover Medical School (MHH) has closed the 2022 financial year with a positive annual result of +2.0 million euros. "We have shown that we can stay on course even under difficult conditions," emphasizes MHH President Professor Dr. Michael Manns. "Although a shortage of skilled workers and absences due to illness are causing strain in almost all areas, our employees are working constructively, with initiative and success for patient care, research, teaching, training, in technology and administration." The Presidential Board is currently discussing strategies with the Staff Council to counteract the stresses on staff. One possibility: "We are countering the shortage of skilled workers by increasing the number of apprenticeships for the health professions to more than 900 and by offering guarantees of employment," says Professor Manns.
Awarded for family friendliness
However, the positive annual result is due to budget negotiations with the health insurance funds for 2021, which only had an effect in fiscal year 2022. The MHH had closed the Corona year 2021 with a loss of -13 million euros. The number of employees (by persons) remained almost unchanged at 10,915; in 2022, there were 8,459 full employees compared to 8,499 in 2021. Two-thirds of the employees are women." The MHH as a whole - research, teaching and now also patient care - has recently been recognized once again for its family-friendliness with the 'audit family-friendly university' certificate," explains the president. Reconciling family and career is a top priority, as evidenced not least by the more than 400 all-day care places for employees' children and the award of second prize to the MHH daycare center in the nationwide "Daycare Center of the Year" competition.
Germany's largest transplant center
MHH remained Germany's largest transplant center in 2022 with 314 solid organ transplants. MHH is also in a top position in the field of cochlear implantations - 378 were performed in 2022. In total, MHH clinics treated 55,106 people as inpatients last year, with an average hospital stay of 7.06 days.The number of outpatient cases increased by 2.4% to a current total of 279,108. Last year, MHH performed 27,861 inpatient operations and 6,188 outpatient operations. The number of planned beds remained constant at 1,520, including 166 intensive care beds.
International - also in teaching
The MHH remains one of the most international places in Lower Saxony: 1,061 people (12.5%) with foreign passports are employed at the university, including 101 employees with Turkish passports alone, 86 with Ukrainian passports, 68 with Polish passports and 53 with Indian passports. This is also true in the area of teaching: almost 14% of students have a foreign passport - such as 54 who come from Syria, 51 from China, 33 from India and 29 from Iran. In 2022, a total of exactly 3,866 students were enrolled at the MHH, of which almost 2,400 were in medicine and more than 320 in dentistry.
All-time high in third-party funding
Hannover Medical School (MHH) has cracked the mark of 100 million euros in third-party funds spent for the first time in its 58-year history, i.e. research funding that was acquired for specific projects on a performance basis and spent in 2022.In 2022, researchers used a total of 101.4 million euros for their projects, which employed nearly 1,400 people. In 2022, 585 new projects were started. This means that the MHH remains one of the most research-active university medical institutions in Germany. The German Research Foundation (DFG) therefore ranks MHH third among all university medical institutions in Germany in terms of third-party funding per professorship. "Last year, we were again able to score with our research focus 'Infection and Immunity' and received many research funds for SARS CoV2 and COVID19 research.101.4 million euros is considerable for a divisional university like the MHH, the only independent medical university in Germany," says Professor Manns.
New building planning on schedule
Preparations for the new MHH building at Stadtfelddamm were on schedule for 2022, and the Building Development Plan (BEP) for patient care was completed and approved. The Budget and Finance Committee of the Lower Saxony State Parliament recently approved the measure financing plan for the 1st construction phase of the new health care building. Coordination with the region and the state capital on the design of the area surrounding the MHH campus is proceeding constructively." By taking over responsibility for the construction at the turn of the year, we now want to decisively tackle the renovation backlog independently," says the MHH president.
Author: Stefan Zorn