Hospital administration at Uniklinikum Erlangen

By carrying out audits, our staff monitor and control internal processes, compliance with legal requirements, internal guidelines and instructions, and ensure operations are run economically. These audits support the Board of Directors in its supervisory function. By continually improving the internal control system, our staff ensure that procedures are carried out correctly and our assets are safe. In the area of commercial risk management, they work closely together to assess risks and measures throughout the whole of Uniklinikum Erlangen. Finally, the team is responsible for the annual risk report.

In the area of compliance, this department works on various compliance topics, answers questions, and offers courses in avoiding breaches of rules and aimed at raising awareness among UKER staff. They draw up administrative rules and monitor the tip-off system. They are also the central contracting authority for Uniklinikum Erlangen.

Our legal experts deal with all areas of medical and hospital law. They are the points of contact when it comes to doctor’s liability, drug and medicinal product law, social and administrative law, and criminal law. They are responsible for following up claims in court proceedings with respect to statutory and private health insurance and vis-à-vis those responsible for paying themselves. They are also involved in finding solutions for increasingly legal issues relating to medical controlling and quality management. Finally, they are the points of contact for everything to do with contracts and are responsible for drawing up our many research contracts and partnership agreements.

Our medical controlling staff department is responsible for the documentation of medical performance and DRG reporting. Our staff are responsible for checking the audits carried out by our cost-bearing institutes and are involved in the relevant payment negotiations.

Our staff department for organizational development strategy and implements methods and elements from the area of organizational development within our hospital administration. They coordinate our interdisciplinary projects and provide advice and support to our project managers. Taking a standardized approach enables the control and transparency of project management within the hospital administration.  The team provides advice on methods for planning and implementation in matters concerning reorganization or process optimization. They are also responsible for continuing to use and improve UKER’s quality management system within the hospital administration. Finally, this department is responsible for providing information on our structure and continuing to develop it further.

Our clinical departments are independent areas within the hospital administration and support the medical directors and the heads of the departments, independent departments and institutes at Uniklinikum Erlangen with all matters relating to the economic running of operations. They deal with decentralized financing, consult with the clinical areas on proposed construction measures, draw up applications for initial equipment and commission maintenance work for building infrastructure. Their remit also includes preparing and implementing partnership agreements and different forms of reporting.

The assistants provide organizational support and expertise to the heads of each of the clinical administrative departments. Their tasks range from inspecting order requests from organizational units to checking incoming invoices and creating and maintaining statistics. Our assistants generate monthly and/or quarterly cost reports and send them out to the various specialist departments at the different organizational units. They are also responsible for settling accounts for services based on external partnership agreements and specific services which patients have to pay for themselves. The assistants also process any claims for damages, consulting with the affected wards, departments, and our legal department.

Our staff are responsible for the admission of inpatients, outpatients and day patients. They are the first point of contact and are there to help patients fill out forms and agreements. They clarify who is responsible for paying for treatment in each specific case. Other tasks include checking invoices and registering births and deaths with the registry office. In some areas, our patient admissions team is also responsible for additional tasks such as arranging appointments, preparing for consultation hours, invoicing and managing patient records.

Our staff in the housekeeping services are mainly responsible for cleaning services. They have a detailed knowledge of circumstances in the various rooms used for research, teaching and patient care, as well as special areas that require special cleaning. Our staff are regularly in contact with our hygiene specialists, ward managers and the relevant managers at external cleaning companies. They conduct spot checks of cleaning quality and keep track of complaints. They also maintain the registry of rooms and update descriptions of services for our ward services and regular cleaning services. Using this as a basis they prepare tender documents for contracting external services. Finally, they are also responsible for certain special tasks specific to each individual department.

The mail room is a key component of the infrastructural backbone of our university hospital. This is where incoming and outgoing mail is dealt with, ensuring the flow of information internally and externally. The mail room is also responsible for all special forms of mail deliveries as well as printing and packaging services. Our staff support and advise the various organizational units at Uniklinikum Erlangen on all matters concerning mail services. This also covers the organization of special forms of dispatch or delivery in order to meet the dynamic requirements of our university medicine. Flexibility is key, as sensitive and time-critical deliveries such as blood and tissue samples require special solutions. The mail room is responsible for implementing any special agreements and for communicating with external service providers. Other tasks include invoicing delivery charges, digital invoice processing and sending invoices to health insurance companies.

For some payment transactions it is beneficial for patients if they have someone they can speak to directly. For this reason, Uniklinikum Erlangen has set up a main cash desk and a further cash office that are assigned to two individual special departments. Our staff process the various incoming and outgoing payments and book them in the SAP system. During opening hours they also accept any lost property and make an effort to find out who it belongs to.