Ground-breaking Collaboration in Heart Surgery

There has been a heart surgery collaboration contract between Inselspital and Hirslanden Klinik Beau-Site in Bern since 2011. An additional cooperation between Inselspital and Hirslanden Klinik Aarau commenced in 2013. Insel Group and Hirslanden Private Hospital Group have now agreed to extend and intensify the existing collaborations in the wider Bern-Aarau area in the medical specialty of heart surgery.

This week, a cooperation agreement was signed covering the operation of a centre of excellence for heart surgery across locations. Heart surgery medical staff will in future be deployed in a coordinated way at all three sites. The cooperation covers Inselspital, Hirslanden Klinik Aarau and Hirslanden Klinik Beau-Site's routine operation, emergencies and on-call services.

This will result in visible advantages for patients. Thanks to joint quality assurance, easier knowledge transfer and due to uniform treatment standards, patients will benefit from even better quality of treatment. In addition, the agreement improves the accessibility of heart surgery near patients' own homes.

The extension and intensification of their collaboration is also advantageous for the two hospital groups. Case numbers and quality data will be collected jointly, and training offered across locations. Setting up joint, more efficient structures and closer cooperation means saving costs.

This cooperation between a public listed hospital and a private listed hospital in the same healthcare market is a new, ground-breaking approach. “We are delighted about the collaboration with Insel Group. It is a forward-looking model, in which private and public hospitals together ensure medical care – efficiently and with high quality,” said Dr. Ole Wiesinger, CEO of Hirslanden Private Hospital Group. Dr. h.c. Uwe E. Jocham, Chairman of the Board of Insel Group, is equally convinced of the potential of a far-reaching collaboration, seeing three key advantages: “It ensures healthcare at a proven high-level for patients in the long term. We are breaking new ground in an important specialty for Insel Group, and last but not least, the cooperation strengthens Bern as a medical location.”

Operations in Bern start on 1 July 2018.