Digital transformation consulting

Hans-Walter Schmittel: The partnership is about much more than just installing and maintaining new medical technology in our hospitals. Our goal is to jointly develop an architecture with which we can establish a Clinical Data Repository to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration within our hospital group and substantially boost the degree of digitalization. Furthermore, it is important to me to have the support of an experienced business partner in healthcare that we can also use as a sparring partner to discuss upcoming changes and incorporate the conclusions in new concepts.

Schmittel: The technology partnership revealed how professional Siemens Healthineers is, not only in medical technology, but also in solving process issues, creating strategies, and in digitalization. In addition, medical technology and IT are growing ever closer together anyway. Therefore, it was obvious to me that we should rely on their external consulting services.

Sören Eichhorst: First, we offer independent advisory services on the challenges of our customers and their entire organization. In terms of content, we focus on three pillars: strategy, digitalization, and clinical and operational excellence. The core element of our approach is the transition of our customers toward a digital and effective healthcare provider. In this field, we have gathered a lot of experience with numerous customers, both in Germany and abroad. Furthermore, we offer an interdisciplinary consulting team consisting of experienced strategy consultants, but also of physicians, economists, and digital experts. This enables us to address specific issues with a broad range of expertise. In addition, we focus on practical application and support the implementation of the jointly developed concepts.

Eichhorst: In addition to strategic questions, we payed particular attention to the organizational level. It was important to check and improve processes and define clear responsibilities since many issues in the Marienhaus Group and with its IT systems had to be addressed in parallel and under considerable time pressure.

Schmittel: I would like to add that the pragmatic approach was crucial for the success of the project. The consultants conducted numerous interviews with our employees, analyzed existing documents, and ultimately chose a bottom-up approach that quickly led us to the actual problem areas. This step was followed by clustering the issues and their solutions into short-, medium-, or long-term initiatives. Based on this clustering, we jointly developed a framework that listed concrete measures and a pragmatic way forward. It was important for us to achieve rapid improvements. Investments in IT have often been deferred in the last few years for economic reasons, so we had a huge backlog.

Schmittel: Definitely. The external perspective is extremely helpful in shaping change processes. You get new food for thought and learn about best practices at other facilities. Another strong argument is the consulting team’s specific expertise in the field of healthcare, but also the diverse mix of specialists, ranging from IT experts to physicians and strategy consultants. This was crucial to the project’s success, and I would warmly recommend the IT consulting service to any organization.