3rd Bauerfeind Industry Forum
“Our mission remains the same”, 11/11/2008
“Those who rely on cheap medical aids are clearly compromising patient care.” CEO Prof. Hans B. Bauerfeind reaffirmed his commitment to quality leadership last week at the 3rd Bauerfeind Industry Forum. Health care management, marketing, and consumer research experts provided the 400+ medical supplies retailers with ideas and decision-making guidance for shaping their businesses. A panel discussion debated how the health care reforms passed by the German government in mid-October would impact the medical supplies business.
Bauerfeind AG, a leading producer of compression stockings, supports, orthoses, orthopedic insoles and prosthetic components, will continue its Quality Partner Program in 2009. The thousand or more medical supply stores and specialist orthopedic firms that have already signed a partnership contract with Bauerfeind are the agile players in a market in which a lot needs to happen in order to prevent the new regulatory guidelines from lowering product quality and therefore ultimately worsening patient care,” remarked Prof. Hans B. Bauerfeind.
“Our mission remains the same,” stressed Michael Maisch on behalf of the Bauerfeind quality partners. “We want to work together to safeguard quality patient or customer care,” said the chair of the Quality Partner Advisory Council. He explained how: “We specialist retailers and orthotists with our technical expertise, our advice and services—and Bauerfeind with its branded products and innovative concepts.” Maisch, who himself employs over 50 staff members at his medical supply stores, sees the Bauerfeind quality partner program, with its marketing and training activities, as the impetus for purposefully taking the fate of the business into our own hands—and not just reacting to the political conditions. “Only in community with strong partners at our side will we be in a position to influence the underlying conditions,” Maisch continued.
Alliances and partnerships—in other words, networked and integrative structures—will also dominate the healthcare industry in the future, according to Dr. Udo Janßen. Janßen, the director of the healthcare management business unit of the Berlin management consultants contec, drew attention to demographic developments: Population growth will be concentrated in the metropolitan areas that offer job prospects, whereas the population will age in shrinking regions. Janßen advised the medical supplies retailers to align their business to the target groups in their neighborhoods to a greater degree than they have so far. “It will be important for future positioning to know which background your customers come from and which specific social needs have to be considered,” he projected.
Quite in keeping with the active, yet objective dialog, the panel discussion comprised representatives from the medical supplies business, the orthotist and orthopedic shoe trades, industry, health insurance funds, patient care providers, and the medical profession. The debate addressed the impact of the new “Act to further develop the organizational structures in public health insurance.” The main topics were tenders and contracts. It became clear that everybody also wants to safeguard patient care in the future—and this takes trust, according to Dr. Andreas Zemke, chairman of the Berlin Orthopedic Surgeons Working Group.
“Believe me, we, too, are interested in promptly processing cost estimates—in our customers’ interests,” explained Holger Schlicht, head of medical supplies management at the health insurance provider DAK, who received the most questions during the discussion. He made the case that the health insurance providers and medical care providers should sit around one table and agree to the basic rules. “We are all in the same boat,” concluded Katrin Kollex from GHD Gesundheits GmbH, a provider of outpatient care that as such works closely with the health insurance funds. She called for contracts to precisely describe and also deliver benefits, and was therefore fully in line with Werner Dierolf, president of the Federal Guild of Orthopedic Shoe Technicians and member of the Bauerfeind Quality Partner Advisory Council. Whether benefits have also been delivered—as described in the contract—would have to be investigated, according to Kollex. Michael Ullrich, head of Healthcare at Bauerfeind, offered the Quality Partners the service of supporting them in their communication with the health insurance funds. It is oftentimes the formalities in contracts that the medical supplier retailers have to contend with.
Why customers buy and how to correctly address them was explained by Thom Barath of the Gruppe Nymphenburg Consult AG, Munich. In his presentation he linked empirical consumer research with insights gained from brain research, psychology, and evolutionary biology. The business economist drew attention to the store as the place where 65% of all purchasing decisions are made, unconsciously in fact—on the basis of emotions. “Emotions,” Thom Barath explained to the medical supplies retailers, ”are the key to decision-making. Only when we properly emotionalize can we influence decisions as we see fit.”
New continuing education offering
Something that is already available for physical therapists and opticians—a supplemental qualification in sports—will soon be available for orthotists, too. Bauerfeind will offer an accredited supplemental qualification as a sport orthotist. The training is a continuing education course that involves external network partners such as the Münster University of Applied Sciences and the Landshut Occupational Technology Center. Orthotists and orthopedic shoe technicians are eligible for this new supplemental qualification.
German elite athletes can also count on Bauerfeind quality products in the future: Bauerfeind has extended its co-partnership with the German Olympics Association (DOSB) until the 2012 London Olympic Games. The contract was signed by Prof. Hans B. Bauerfeind and Axel Achten, director of Deutsche Sport Marketing GmbH, the official marketing agency for the DOSB.
