Closing gaps in care and integrating research, teaching and practice more closely: MHH and Vinzenzkrankenhaus combine their geriatric expertise.
Working together to improve care for the elderly (from left): Managing Director of the Vinzenzkrankenhaus Michael Schmitt, MHH Vice President Professor Frank Lammert, MHH President Professor Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner, Medical Director of the Vinzenzkrankenhaus Dr. Jens Albrecht and MHH Vice President Martina Saurin. Copyright: Inka Burow / MHH
In the midst of a period of profound upheaval in the German healthcare system, two key players in the Hannover Region have formed a strategic partnership: Hannover Medical School (MHH) and Vinzenzkrankenhaus Hannover are joining forces to permanently improve care for elderly patients.
"We are pursuing ambitious plans that go far beyond traditional cooperation," says MHH President Professor Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner. "The challenges are considerable: older people require complex medical treatments, while staff shortages and limited resources are putting pressure on the Clinical Departments," explains Professor Frank Lammert, Vice President of MHH and responsible for healthcare and patient care. "The hospital reform promotes complementary profiling and the best possible networking. This is exactly where the new collaboration comes in."
Complementary care concept
The Vinzenzkrankenhaus, already an established provider of geriatric medicine in Hanover, covers the broad spectrum of specialist care - from internal medicine and traumatology to the treatment of cognitive impairments. The MHH specializes in highly complex cases and is an international leader in this field. "Together, we are creating a complementary care concept that enables a smooth transition between acute care, geriatric follow-up treatment and rehabilitative management," explains Michael Schmitt, Managing Director of Vinzenzkrankenhaus. "Our collaboration shows that reform can also lead to strategic innovation - and that geriatric medicine in Hanover will be more closely integrated in future."
Cooperation aims to improve care
"The aim of the cooperation is to optimize geriatric medical care and reduce unnecessary waiting times as much as possible," says Dr. Jens Albrecht, Medical Director of the Vinzenzkrankenhaus. "We are already working closely together - for example in geriatric traumatology. Our joint Clinical Department for Geriatrics at the MHH at the Vinzenzkrankenhaus is set to become a model for interprofessional, cross-site care that brings together research, teaching and everyday clinical practice."
New professorship for geriatrics
The central component of the cooperation: the management of geriatrics at the Vinzenzkrankenhaus will in future be linked to a newly established professorship at the MHH. "This will anchor geriatric medicine in the teaching and research profile of university medicine for the future," explains Professor Hilfiker-Kleiner. Plans include rotation models for assistant physicians, interdisciplinary care research and collaborative research projects.
Text: MHH/Inka Burow