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72. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)
Joint Meeting mit der Polnischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

06.06. - 09.06.2021

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Transformation from municipal to university status of a German hospital – the neurosurgical experience

Transformation eines städtischen in ein universitäres Krankenhaus in Deutschland – die neurochirurgische Erfahrung

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  • presenting/speaker Christina Wolfert - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Stefan Motov - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Maximilian-Niklas Bonk - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Ina Konietzko - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Bastian Stemmer - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Björn Sommer - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland
  • Ehab Shiban - Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Augsburg, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 72. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Polnischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. sine loco [digital], 06.-09.06.2021. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2021. DocV254

doi: 10.3205/21dgnc239, urn:nbn:de:0183-21dgnc2391

Published: June 4, 2021

© 2021 Wolfert et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

Text

Objective: On January 1st, 2019 a high-volume municipal hospital with 1700 bed capacity and a catchment area of 2.5 million inhabitants was transformed into a university hospital. The aim of this study was to identify changes within the department of neurosurgery before and after the conversion.

Methods: We compared two half-year periods, one before (municipal hospital status; August 1st, 2017 – January 31st, 2018) and one after (university hospital status, August 1st, 2019 – January 31st, 2020) the conversion. Time periods were chosen in order to avoid the effects of the first Covid-19 outbreak. Target parameters were hospitalisation rates, number of surgical procedures, length of hospital stay, patient’s allocation area (% of patients living > 25 km from the city), as well as number and type of admissions.

Results: There were no differences in baseline patient’s demographics between both groups. 52% were female with a median age of 62±17 years. Hospitalization rate increased by 29.4% (655 vs. 506), the increase originated mostly from in-house referrals. Surgical procedures increased by 18.6% (765 vs. 645). Length of hospital stay decreased slightly (8.37 vs. 8.78 days). The referral area did not enlarge (27.1% vs. 26.2% of patients were living > 25 km outside the city; p=0.62). Percentage of referrals from other hospitals (10.1% vs. 9.3%; p=0.69), emergency room admissions (24.8% vs. 27.5%; p=0.3) and elective admissions (65.1% vs 63.2%; p=0.62) did not have a statistically significant change.

Conclusion: Conversation to university status was associated with an increased number of hospitalizations and surgical procedures. Thereby neither referral type nor referral area size changed significantly.