Very good grades for sustainability: St. Georg in Leipzig becomes the first medical center to complete the Siemens Green+ Check

Achieving and maintaining high quality entails a process of continuous improvement and development, as part of which the St. Georg Medical Center commissioned Siemens Healthcare to conduct a Green+ Check to determine its sustainability index and identify areas in which sustainability performance could be improved.

The analysis produced a Green+ score of 56, which is well above average (the average score across all areas would be 33). This confirms that St. Georg is very well positioned in comparison to similar facilities in Germany. The organization's quality of patient care, workflows and communication with employees and the local public were all particularly highly rated, as was its sustainable financial position. The Green+ Check identified energy efficiency and IT resources as areas with room for further improvement.

Energy costs are rising, budgets are tight and competition between institutions is growing. Faced with these challenges, the management of St. Georg decided to conduct a Green+ Check to help them maintain their current position in the healthcare market and identify scope for improvement at the medical center. The Check provided by Siemens Healthcare applies a standardized evaluation scheme to measure a company's specific sustainability performance in three categories: environment, efficiency and quality, and then uses the results to identify areas with room for improvement. The findings of the investigation gave the medical center in Leipzig a robust basis on which to develop measures to make improvements in areas including the quality of care, the efficiency of service provision, environmental protection and energy savings.

“The Green+ Check has proved very valuable for our institution, as we have identified seven packages of measures to bring about further improvements. We are currently reviewing and prioritizing the recommendations from Siemens, which include the prospect of very significant energy savings,” reports Prof. Dr. Karsten Güldner, Managing Director of Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH and Director of Städtisches Klinikum “St. Georg” Leipzig.

“If you want to improve, first you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses. The Green+ Check gives the hospitals’ managers a clear picture of their organization's performance in terms of the environment, quality and efficiency and an objective indication of where it stands in relation to the competition,” explains Wolfgang Bayer, Head of Siemens Germany, Healthcare Sector.

The Green+ Check forms part of the Green+ Hospital concept, under which Siemens helps medical centers adopt a more systematic approach to sustainability and improve their performance with respect to environmental protection, economic efficiency and optimal quality for patients. The analysis tool uses metrics that are compared with benchmarks and reference values from other hospitals, then weighted in accordance with their significance for overall sustainability and finally aggregated to produce a sustainability index in the form of the Green+ Score.

The detailed analysis process assesses information from a questionnaire and from interviews and the findings of building visits and presents the results for each of the Green+ Hospitals categories – the environment, efficiency and quality – separately. The quality factors considered include the quality of care, staff training, strategy and social outreach, while information and communication infrastructure, medical equipment and workflows are among the aspects investigated for the efficiency category. The main points considered for the environment element are building infrastructure issues such as energy supply, lighting, waste and water consumption, but the sustainability of suppliers is also investigated.

Contacts for media enquiries

Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH
Andrea Minker
Head of Corporate Communications/ Press Officer
Telephone: +49 (0)341 909 2150
Mobile:+49 (0)170 9219 507
Siemens Healthcare
Marion Bludszuweit
Media Relations
Telephone: +49 (0)9131 84 3292
E-mail: marion.bludszuweit@siemens.com
The St. Georg Group consists of Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH, five subsidiaries (including Fachkrankenhaus Hubertusburg) and the proprietary enterprise Städtisches Klinikum “St. Georg” Leipzig. Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH is identified in the state hospital planning system as a regional specialized medical care hospital. The medical services provided range from elementary to advanced care, with the former accounting for about 75% of services as measured by extent of specialization and the seriousness of conditions. Specialized and highly specialized treatment measures account for the other 25% of services. For further information see: www.sanktgeor

g.de Contact: E-mail: info@sanktgeorg.de The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world’s largest healthcare solution providers and a leading manufacturer and service provider in the fields of medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, hospital information technology and hearing instruments. It offers solutions covering the entire supply chain under one roof – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows oriented toward the most important clinical pictures, Siemens also strives to make healthcare faster, better and, at the same time, less expensive. Siemens Healthcare currently has some 48,000 employees worldwide and is present throughout the world. During fiscal 2010 (up to September 30) the Sector posted sales worth 12.4 billion euros and profits of around 750 million euros. For further information see: www.siemens.com/healthcare.