Faculty
Wiesbaden Business School

The second semester of the Master's degree program in Healthcare Management spent the past week in Alicante, Spain, to complete their module on Quality, Risk and Business Continuity Management as part of the PROTECT Summer School. The Summer School took place as part of the ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive program.

Students and teaching staff from Spain, Portugal, Germany and Finland dedicated this week to the central methods of clinical risk management. Various scenarios were worked on, including the fictitious Sacred Heart Hospital, which was inadequately prepared for a mass casualty incident (MANV). This scenario was worked on by several small groups as a scenario analysis. The process risk analysis was also worked on by looking at the process for responding to cardiac arrest in the fictitious Sacred Heart Hospital. The London Protocol was also worked on.

Special thanks go to the host, Prof. Dr. José Mira, and his team from the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, who made an exciting program and an enriching exchange possible.

The translation of the term "second victim" determined using the Delphi method was published freely accessible in the Zentralblatt für Arbeitsmedizin, Arbeitsschutz und Ergonomie. Previously, only the international consensus-based definition existed in English. WiHelP is pleased to have coordinated the German translation.

Hannah Rösner and Reinhard Strametz played a key role in this. You can access the publication here.

The first Training School of the EU COST Action 22152 BetterCare, whose deputy head is Reinhard Strametz, head of the WiHelP Institute, took place from September 18 to 20, 2024. It was planned and led by WiHelP coordinator Victoria Klemm. The Training School was held at the NOVA National School of Public Health in Lisbon, Portugal. A total of 30 people from 19 different countries took part. The Training School plays a major role in disseminating the findings of BetterCare and bringing together researchers from different countries to work on the important topic of supporting family caregivers. To make this possible, two key grades were given on the topic of patient safety in the context of home care and various group work was carried out to create a deeper understanding of the situation of those affected. The Training School was rounded off with VR scenarios that dealt with medication safety in the home setting.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our new study on the economic importance of the Peer Support Program (PSP) in German hospitals. The authors of this study are Hannah Rösner (co-opted member of the WiHelP), Reinhard Strametz (Institute Director), Thomas Neusius (member of the WiHelP) and José Mira.

Key messages of the study:

• Economic benefit: Cost savings of €6,672 on average per nurse through the PSP for a hospital with 1,000 nurses.

• Total savings: Annual savings of approx. €6.67 million for a hospital with 1,000 nursing staff.

• Reduced absenteeism: Reduction in sick days and staff turnover.

Hospitals benefit from the PSP not only financially, but also through higher employee satisfaction, lower staff turnover and improved patient care. In addition, the psychological safety of members of staff is strengthened, which improves the quality of patient care in the long term. Comparable cost savings are also possible for many other professional groups, and further analyses are already underway. If you would like to find out more about the study, click here.

We are pleased to announce the start of the ERASMUS+ BIP PROTECT (Patient Risk Oversight - Teaching, Education, and Clinical Training) program!

There are 36 enthusiastic students from Finland, Germany, Portugal and Spain enrolled in the program.

The virtual learning phase, prepared by WiHelP and hosted by Wiesbaden Business School, includes 9 comprehensive modules with numerous clinical examples and interactive elements. This phase prepares participants for the face-to-face phase at UMH in Elche, Spain, which starts at the end of September 2024.

A big thank you to our great cooperation partners and their institutions. In total are involved:

• Spain: Prof. José Joaquin Mira, Prof. Irene Carillo, Vanessa Ribeiro Neves (Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche)

• Finland: Prof. Susanna Tella (LAB University of Applied Sciences)

• Portugal: Prof. Paulo Sousa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

• Germany: Prof. Reinhard Strametz, Hannah Rösner (Hochschule RheinMain)

The WiHelP project SAFE@KCH is now entering its second round. Since the beginning of April, this two-year project has been implemented at Kamuzu Central Hospital as part of the Global Clinic Partnerships funding line. It is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH.

We have made significant progress in the last two years:

• Consent from operating theaters: we have achieved nationwide consent to carry out counting checks in the operating theater to avoid foreign bodies left intraoperatively.
• Patient safety wristbands: Identification using patient safety wristbands has been optimized.
• Safety in the OR: Safety in the OR was improved through the introduction of Team Time Out.
• Patient Safety Ambassadors: Over 20 Patient Safety Ambassadors have been trained and can now act as multipliers in other health facilities in Malawi.

Over the next two years, the specialization of our work will be on drug therapy safety. As always, the focus will be on exchanging ideas and learning from each other. Reinhard Strametz, Institute Director of WiHelP, will be on site to kick off the project.

This year's Hospital Report focuses on the topic of "structural reform" and examines ongoing quality and structural problems in the hospital landscape in Germany. Among the authors are the members of WiHelP, Prof. Silke Arnegger and Jana Hagenlocher (Wiesbaden Business School), who together with Ariane Herberg (Wiesbaden Business School) and Dr. Burkhard Lembeck (BVOU) have published on the topic of sector-equivalent care and remuneration.

The Wiesbaden model for sector-equivalent care and remuneration discussed in their article uses the example of orthopaedics and trauma surgery to show how concrete sector-equivalent remuneration should be structured, which services are suitable for this and what potential effects this would have on care.

You can access the complete list of potentially ambulatory services referred to in the article here.

On October 26, 2023, two members of WiHelP were elected to leadership positions in an EU COST Action. EU-COST-Actions are EU-funded research networks in which researchers from the pan-European region conduct joint research on relevant science and technology topics and develop solution strategies. The EU COST Action CA22152 "BETTERCARE" deals with the increasingly important topic of care in the home setting and possible mistakes that carers can make and the associated effects on non-professional carers. These effects can ultimately also have a negative impact on relatives in need of care. Given current demographic developments, this is an issue that will affect an increasing number of people throughout Europe. The focus of this European research project is on supporting non-professional carers, which can make a major contribution to patient safety and should enable those in need of care to remain in their home environment for as long as possible. Reinhard Strametz (WiHelP Institute Director) has been elected Deputy Chairman and Victoria Klemm (WiHelP Coordinator) has been elected Coordinator of the Training Schools. This makes Victoria Klemm not only the first woman, but also the first member of staff at Hochschule RheinMain to hold a leadership position in an EU COST Action. For Reinhard Strametz, this is the second EU-COST Action that he has led as Vice-Chair and an opportunity to consolidate his work in the ERNST consortium (European Researchers' Network Working on Second Victims).

WiHelP welcomes this initiative and congratulates him on this success!

Dr. Andrea Conti from the Università del Piemonte Orientale (UPO) gave a guest lecture at the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP) at the start of the 2023-24 winter semester. He is a specialist in disaster medicine at the Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health (CRIMEDIM), a WHO Collaborating Center for Disaster Medicine.

Disasters, according to Dr. Conti, are the result of certain hazards combined with pre-existing vulnerability. For example, an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale would take on very different proportions depending on where it occurs. In Germany, for example, there is a lower perception of risk, partly due to the lower frequency of such events in our latitudes, and Germans lack preparation. This is because people in regions where earthquakes occur more frequently are familiar with such events, for example through training from an early age. In addition, architecture can be adapted to the seismic characteristics.

The late effects after disasters were also explained. These occur due to the interruption of acute care, but also due to the shifting of resources from prevention to acute care in other disciplines. These effects sometimes only become visible years after an acute event. Both physical events (heart attacks, stomach ulcers) and psychological phenomena (significant increase in the use of antidepressants twelve months after an event) can be observed.

Dealing more intensively with these research topics, better preparation for certain crisis situations and monitoring the after-effects can help to save lives in crisis areas and minimize the damage to life and limb as well as the economic damage, which can run into the billions after crises.

Dr. Conti's presentation was thus in line with WiHelp's intention to promote the joint consideration of medical and economic effects in security-relevant areas of the healthcare system. After all, disaster medicine, when used sensibly, is not only a blessing for those affected, but also pays off economically. It is estimated that every euro spent wisely on crisis prevention and preparing countermeasures yields a return on investment of 5 euros.

From September 18 to 21, 2023, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz hosted the first ERNST Training School to be held in Germany at Wiesbaden Business School. The Training School is a format for disseminating the knowledge gained by the ERNST consortium (European Researchers Working on Second Victims, WiHelP reported) that was already successfully held in Zagreb last year.

On September 18, the Training School was personally opened by the President of Hochschule RheinMain, Prof. Dr. Eva Waller, with inspiring words. This was followed by three intensive days in which the 25 or so trainees from 17 EU countries were not only taught about the second victim phenomenon itself, but also strategies for dealing with it. This is intended to support second victims in the EU in the long term by enabling the trainees to apply and disseminate the knowledge they have acquired in their home countries.

The main objective of this year's Training School was to facilitate various dialogues and discussions regarding the Second Victim phenomenon, while sharing best perspectives and practices in the context of adverse events in healthcare settings to enable more comprehensive support for Second Victims. In addition to the implementation of second victim peer support programs, potential barriers to learning, such as overconfidence, were discussed to better prepare for resistance in second victim training.

WiHelP would especially like to thank Sofia Guerra Paiva and José Joaquin Mira for the excellent coordination of the ERNST Training School and our local coordination team, led by Victoria Klemm.

It was a great honor to organize the ERNST Training School 2023 in Wiesbaden. We would also like to thank all the participants who accompanied us on this trip!

From 28 to 30 August 2023, the most important congress on quality of care and patient safety in healthcare, organized by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), took place in Seoul.

Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm were able to present two WiHelP projects on site: firstly, Safe@KCH, a project between WiHelP and Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi, which was established as part of the Hospital Partnerships funding program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Else-Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS), implemented by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The project was able to bring about some positive changes for patient safety at KCH, for example through the sustainable procurement of patient identification bracelets in Malawi. These and other positive developments were presented at ISQua 2023 together with two delegates from Malawi.

The results of the SeViD project to date were also presented, with its first national cross-sectional studies providing new insights into the second victim phenomenon (SVP) in Germany.

We are pleased to have successfully presented two projects in Seoul.

The Data for Health Conference 2023 took place in Berlin under the motto "Data use in healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges". Over two days, a wide range of lectures, workshops and barcamps on current topics in the field of data use and artificial intelligence in healthcare were presented. Representatives from Wiesbaden Business School, including Prof. Dr. Silke Arnegger and Jana Hagenlocher, were on hand to gain valuable insights for their research.

The conference intensively discussed the necessity and existing challenges in relation to the use of data in the healthcare sector. In particular, the focus was on topics such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the diversity of available data, individual consent versus public consent and ethical aspects. It became clear that data sharing in healthcare brings numerous benefits, including scientific progress, process optimization and informed decision-making in treatment.

The conference thus provided a platform for insight, inspiration and in-depth discussions on the future role of data use in healthcare.

The conference of the European Health Management Association (EHMA) took place in Rome from June 4 to 7, 2023. New research findings on the topic of sustainable management were presented there in workshops, abstract sessions or key note lectures followed by a panel discussion.

Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm were there as members of WiHelP to take part in the exciting events and to present their own results. The topic of their presentation was the second victim phenomenon in Germany, in which they succinctly summarized the results of Prof. Reinhard Strametz's SeViD studies to date.

The dissemination of results is an important step towards implementing measures against the second victim phenomenon, which is why participation in this conference made a good contribution to this.

WiHelP congratulates them on their successful presentation!

On 16.05.2023, Victoria Klemm, the Institute Coordinator, was awarded the prize of the Business Administration Society Wiesbaden (BGW) for outstanding academic achievements. The laudatory speech for Victoria Klemm was held by Prof. Reinhard Strametz. The institute directors Prof. Reinhard Strametz and Prof. Silke Arnegger warmly congratulate her on this achievement. Click here for the official press release of Hochschule RheinMain.

Plusminus reported on 10.05.2023 about the dramatic situation of the workload of young doctors in German hospitals. The working hours are so high that the majority of those affected can only stay fit for work with the help of medication, and more than half report burnout symptoms in surveys. As an expert in patient safety, Prof. Dr. Strametz was interviewed on this topic by WDR in Cologne. You can find the video in the ARD media library here.

On May 11, 2023, the Austrian Platform Patient:innensicherheit and the Second Victim Association hosted the Second Victim Action Day in the historic van Swieten Hall at the Medical University of Vienna to draw attention to this important topic and possible solutions and best practice examples. The WiHelP was also represented by Prof. Reinhard Strametz, head of the institute, and two members of staff, Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm. While Prof. Strametz gave an introductory presentation on the basic problem of the second victim phenomenon, Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm presented the first results of the SeViD-A1 study among Austrian pediatricians, which was conducted in cooperation with the Second Victim Association and the Austrian Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

There was also a report on Elisabeth Krommer's "Kollegiale Hilfe" (KoHi) project, a best-practice example of how second victims can be systematically supported. WiHelP is also involved in this project, as the scientific evaluation of the project was carried out in Wiesbaden.

The event was rounded off by an exciting panel discussion with representatives of the various interest groups in the healthcare sector, in which different perspectives and solutions were highlighted. One thing is clear: in order to deal with this important problem in the healthcare system, joint efforts and a lot of public relations work are needed to create sufficient awareness. The Second Victim Action Day in Vienna was a successful start to this.

The European Researchers' Network Working on Second Victims, founded in 2020 as EU COST Action 19113, met on 09.05.2023 at the EU COST building in Brussels to drive forward further actions at European level aimed at improving the mental safety of healthcare professionals across Europe following the adoption of the world's first definition of the term second victim. Best practice approaches from other high-risk areas such as aviation, the prison system and rail transport were also analyzed. The initiative, led by Prof. Dr. José Mira from Spain and Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz from WiHelP, has now been joined by researchers from 29 EU countries and 38 countries worldwide.

On April 27 and 28, 2023, the second meeting of the German-speaking Network for Patient Safety Research (DNPF) took place at the Frankfurt House of Logistics and Mobility (HOLM). Prof. Reinhard Strametz, a founding member of the DNPF and head of the WiHelP institute, invited various patient safety researchers to Frankfurt. The meeting was dedicated to the Frankfurt poet Goethe's work "Poetry and Truth": How can scientific findings be better implemented in practical experience?

After a brief round of introductions and a summary of last year's events, the participants of the network meeting got straight into a lively discussion about why there is still a lack of implementation of scientific findings. Constructive, solution-oriented approaches were also developed on how implementation could be improved.

Several exciting presentations were also given, which presented the research topics of individual participants and offered an exciting exchange of ideas.

Prof. Reinhard Strametz summed up the network meeting appropriately: "What we hoped for was a constructive exchange across institutions, disciplines and professions - and we succeeded"

In addition to Prof. Reinhard Strametz, Hannah Rösner, Eva Neckov and Victoria Klemm were also involved in this network meeting as members of the WiHelP. The WiHelP is delighted to have hosted this important network meeting.

The head of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP) yesterday completed his habilitation in anesthesiology and the associated teaching qualification for the field at the Faculty of Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt on the topic of "Employee safety in clinical acute care medicine with special emphasis on employee safety in clinical acute care medicine with special emphasis on the second victim phenomenon". The research submitted for the cumulative Habilitation (post-doctoral qualification) dealt with the investigation of the second victim phenomenon by creating and validating suitable measuring instruments as well as the empirical investigation of the prevalence, symptoms and course of this phenomenon in German-speaking countries. For the first time worldwide, surveys were carried out on awareness of the term per se and certain risk factors and barriers to implementation were identified together with researchers from leading healthcare institutions in Germany and Austria. This work enables evidence-based and needs-based offers to strengthen the resilience of healthcare professionals, who have been exposed to severe stress not only since the COVID19 pandemic. The WiHelP would like to congratulate Prof. Dr. med. habil. Reinhard Strametz on this academic honor!

The European Patient Safety Foundation (EUPSF) is an independent, non-profit foundation. It is a neutral platform for the exchange of knowledge and best practices for innovative, meaningful, sustainable and replicable solutions to improve patient safety.

The EUPSF is multidisciplinary and takes into account the specificities and importance of the differences in culture and functioning of healthcare systems in the various European countries. It supports national/local patient safety stakeholders and works with them based on a strong, constant and open dialog.

Together with Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich, WiHelP is the first academic institution from Germany to join the EUPSF as a non-profit organization affiliate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the WiHelP, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, supported the EUPSF with a podcast on the second victim phenomenon, which you can listen to here.

"We are looking forward to the content-related cooperation with the EUPSF, which will help our international orientation and networking for mutual benefit," says Prof. Strametz. Further information on the EUPSF can be found here.

Like any effective measure, digital transformation in the healthcare sector also offers opportunities and risks for patient care. In his guest lecture at the 76th conference of the DIIR's "Internal Auditing in Hospitals" working group, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz explained the opportunities and fields of action as well as the risks of digital transformation that need to be minimized, using the example of the recommendations for action on digitalization and risk management drawn up under his leadership by Aktionsbündnis Patientensicherheit (APS) e.V. and the Austrian Patient Safety Platform. Although the document in question has been around for several years, the core risks listed there still describe the key areas of action for healthcare facilities in order to fully exploit the undisputed potential of digital applications by minimizing their risks.

Of course, the presentation also included a reference to the large language models that everyone is talking about, better known by their most prominent representative GPT-4. As with all phenomena that are excessively reported on, the question arises: is ChatGPT a game changer or a pig being driven through the village? A few examples were used to classify the possibilities but also the limitations. This included the world premiere of the "Ode to Internal Auditing", naturally created with the active support of ChatGPT.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Claudia Clauß, Head of the Internal Audit unit at Leipzig University Hospital, and Mr Ronald Kühn, Head of the DIIR Working Group on Internal Auditing in Hospitals, for the invitation and excellent organization of the event.

You can find more information on the DIIR Working Group on Internal Auditing in Hospitals at: https://www.diir.de/arbeitskreise/interne-revision-im-krankenhaus/

The SAFE@KCH research project was launched in 2021 to sustainably improve patient safety at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), the largest hospital in Malawi's capital Lilongwe. To this end, six Patient Safety Ambassadors from Malawi were trained in Germany last year to use their training to educate other local healthcare professionals in patient safety measures. In March 2023, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Head of WiHelP and Scientific Director of the project, visited KCH for the third time. The visit took place under difficult circumstances, as Malawi is currently being ravaged by the deadliest cholera epidemic in the country's history and at the same time by "Freddy", the longest cyclone in the history of weather records at over 100 days. Malawi was hit several times by this cyclone, which claimed many lives, destroyed infrastructure and put an additional strain on Malawi's healthcare system while causing nationwide power cuts. But all these circumstances did not stop the Patient Safety Ambassadors trained in Germany from training their colleagues themselves, accompanied by Prof. Strametz, using the jointly prepared training materials. Occasional power outages were easily bridged with cell phone flashlights and at the end of the two-day training, concrete improvement projects for KCH were launched in interdisciplinary working groups for all of the Joint Commission's international patient safety goals. Still very impressed by the energy and will to improve the care situation, Prof. Strametz draws an extremely positive conclusion from the course of the project so far: "Our plan for multiplier training has been a complete success. Future basic training in patient safety can be carried out independently by the Patient Safety Ambassadors on site and linked to quality improvement projects. The project is scheduled to end in August 2023 with a presentation of the quality projects implemented by then. However, follow-up projects based on SAFE@KCH are already being planned.

You can find more information about the project here.

Following the guiding principle "Quality of health services in a heterogeneous society", this year's annual conference of the German Society for Health Economics took place on March 13 and 14 at Leibnitz University in Hanover.

Prof. Dr. Silke Arnegger, Deputy Director of the Institute, and WiHelP members Prof. Dr. Thomas Neusius and Ariane Herberg were also on site. In five lecture sessions with various exciting topics Neusius offered the WiHelP members exciting input, inspiration and interesting encounters. In addition, Prof Dr Silke Arnegger and Ariane Herberg were able to present their research on the current topic of same-sector care and remuneration with a specialization in orthopaedics and trauma surgery, which you can find out more about in the working paper

The WiHelP would also like to congratulate Prof. Dr. Silke Arnegger on taking office as chair of the dggö's "Healthcare and Remuneration" committee, which she will hold together with Robert Messerle (Hamburg Center for Health Economics). This success was duly celebrated at the evening event in the beautiful New Town Hall.

Under the motto "Quality management - close to people", this year's annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Qualitätsmanagement in der Gesundheitsversorgung e.V. (GQMG) took place at the Medical School in Hamburg on March 9 and 10.

In addition to exciting workshops on topics such as shared decision making, clinical ethics and complaints management, our research member of staff Hannah Rösner was also able to take part in two different workshops and present her research topics.

On the one hand, the current results of the KhaSiMiR study (Hospital Study on Safety through Management of In-Hospital Risks 2021-22) were presented. This study, funded by the Federal Ministry of Health, was conducted by representatives of the HSRM, the Patient Safety Action Alliance, the German Hospital Institute and the Institute for Patient Safety and deals with the implementation status and current challenges in the implementation of clinical risk management (kRM). In addition to the quantitative survey, Hannah Rösner from WiHelP conducted a qualitative survey with those responsible for CRM in order to identify barriers and support factors in the implementation of CRM.

On the other hand, another workshop in cooperation with the representatives of the Medical School Hamburg, Prof. Dr. Hartwig Marung and Prof. Dr. Dr. Rainer Petzina, dealt with the topic of the second victim phenomenon. The workshop provided a comprehensive introduction to the second victim issue and discussed the process and possible consequences of the phenomenon. Helpful support services for second victims were discussed in an interactive discussion with the workshop participants. A special focus was placed on the three SeViD studies published to date.

On February 28, 2023, the study "Second Victims among German Emergency Medical Services Physicians (SeViD-III-Study)" was published in the Q1 journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The SeViD consortium consisting of scientists at 7 locations in German-speaking countries is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Director of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Econimics and Patient Safety (WiHelP), and our scientific members of staff Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm were also significantly involved as co-authors.

According to the revised, world's first evidence-based definition developed by the European Researchers' Network Working on Second Victims (ERNST) under the deputy chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz at the end of 2022, second victims are: "Any health care worker, directly or indirectly involved in an unanticipated adverse patient event, unintentional healthcare error, or patient injury and who becomes victimized in the sense that they are also negatively impacted."

The SeViD III study as part of the SeViD project with 14 individual studies is the first study in Germany to investigate the prevalence of the second victim phenomenon among emergency physicians. The goal of this study is to create transparency regarding this problem, which has long been taboo but is widespread and highly relevant to safety in emergency medicine. This is the only way to develop and sustainably introduce effective and needs-based support strategies for second victims based on the identified needs of emergency physicians. According to global health and patient safety experts, the mental health protection of healthcare professionals is an essential component of increasing the resilience of healthcare systems and one of the priorities of the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan for Patient Safety 2021-2030.

WiHelP congratulates its members on the publication of this important study.

If you have any questions, please contact reinhard.strametz(at)hs-rm.de directly. You can access the study via open access here.

The non-profit association for psychosocial competence and support in the healthcare sector - PSU-Akut e.V. is the leading association for the prevention concept of psychosocial support (PSU), which offers prevention, training and acute help in the context of special stress situations in the healthcare sector. The focus of PSU work is on so-called peer supporters.

In January, the starting signal was given for a special project that is unique in Germany: PSU-Akut e.V. was commissioned to implement the "PSU Bayern" project. The goal of the project is to create financial, structural and professional framework conditions for the permanent establishment of a so-called specialist and coordination office in order to anchor psychosocial support (PSU) throughout the Bavarian healthcare system.
The project "Establishing structures for a specialist and coordination office - psychosocial support in the Bavarian healthcare system" is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care (StMGP) and financially supported by the Bavarian State Medical Association (BLÄK). PSU-Akut e.V. cooperates with the Association of Nurses in Bavaria (VdPB) and the Bavarian Hospital Association (BKG) as part of the project implementation.

The Hochschule RheinMain is conducting an external process and results evaluation to accompany the project. Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Institute Director of WiHelP, Prof. Dr. Thomas Neusius and Isabell Wiesenhütter were invited to Munich for the project kick-off. The meeting was the perfect opportunity to get to know the project and the people involved and to gather ideas. We would like to thank them for the invitation and look forward to working with them in the coming months.

Further information on the "PSU Bayern" project can be found here.

Eva Potura, chairwoman and co-founder of the Austrian association "secondvictim.at" for the support of mentally stressed health professionals, was our guest at the WBS on January 24, 2023 at the invitation of WiHelP. In an exciting keynote lecture, she explained to interested students and researchers how this important association was founded and how the association supports second victims in Austria.

Second victims are healthcare professionals who experience an adverse event or patient harm at work or make an unintentional mistake and are themselves traumatized by this negative experience. In order to ensure the performance of healthcare systems, it is essential to support members of staff in such emotional states of emergency. "Since there was no systematic point of contact for those affected outside their own organization before the association was founded in Austria, "secondvictim.at" is doing remarkable pioneering work in this field," says Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Head of WiHelP.

Her keynote lecture was accompanied by a presentation by Hannah Rösner and Victoria Klemm (researchers at WiHelP), who spoke about the latest WiHelP research findings on the second victim problem in Germany, which have recently been published in leading international academic journals.

In addition to the academic afternoon, Dr. Potura's visit also served to plan the first Austria-wide systematic survey on the status of the second victim problem, which is now being extended to our neighboring country as part of the SeViD project. We look forward to further cooperation and the first return visit in March 2023.

You can access the secondvictim.at homepage here.

On January 20, 2023, a study on second victims was published for the first time within a German-speaking hospital's own facility.

Mental health has been a high priority at Klinik Hietzing in the Vienna Healthcare Network since 2019. As part of a project to implement systematic, collegial help (KoHi), which was planned and started before the coronavirus pandemic, a survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence, symptom burden and preferred offers of help within the hospital's own staff. Based on these important findings, a system for training collegial helpers (KoHis) was established in order to better support colleagues in exceptional mental health situations in the sense of psychological first aid. WiHelP has been cooperating with the Karl Landsteiner Institute for Clinical Risk Management in Vienna as the evaluating institution for this lighthouse project, which has already won several patient safety awards. "While previous studies on the second victim problem in German-speaking countries have always had to be carried out by professional associations, Hietzing Hospital is breaking the taboo of publicly reporting on the psychological stress experienced by healthcare professionals in its own facility. It is not surprising that the prevalence of these problems there is lower than the national average of previous SeViD surveys, as there has been conscious investment in supporting healthcare staff for many years," says Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Head of WiHelP. The KoHi project also serves as one of four lighthouse projects in Europe in the European Reseachers' Network Working on Second Victims (ERNST).

You can access the publication of the KoHi-I study here.

This joint working paper is the result of a joint research project between WiHelp and the German Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and Trauma Surgeons (BVOU) to analyze sector-equivalent services and billing in orthopaedics and trauma surgery.

The paper shows a "road map" to sector-equivalent care, in which clinicians and practicing physicians can better care for their patients in the area of outpatient surgery.

It also specifies the necessary regulatory measures.

You can find the document here.

On 29.11.2022, Prof. Silke Arnegger, Deputy Director of the WiHelP, organized an evening event with Abraham Klink. He was Minister of Health in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2010, admitted to the WBS and gave us an exciting lecture. Today, Abraham Klink is a Senior Executive Advisor in the Strategy& Netherlands division at PwC in Amsterdam, where he is committed to strengthening the healthcare system and using digitalization to its advantage.

Interested WBS students and members of staff were cordially invited to attend the lecture. The lecture entitled "saving lives and costs: a contribution to the sustainability of health care" dealt with the reform of the Dutch healthcare system that took place in 2006. It was easy to draw parallels with the German healthcare system and how the findings from the Netherlands could also be applied in Germany in order to sustainably strengthen the healthcare system. There was a lively discussion during the presentation, which provided new impetus in many areas. Afterwards, these ideas and food for thought were discussed in a convivial atmosphere over drinks and catering. In terms of topic, the lecture focused on the WiHelP, highlighting ways in which a healthcare system can be sustainably improved and the barriers that need to be considered when implementing this. We would like to thank Abraham Klink for taking the time to give this excellent presentation and Prof. Silke Arnegger for her commitment and excellent planning.

On October 28, 2022, the European Researchers' Network Working on Second Victims (ERNST) met at the House of Logistics and Mobility HOLM in Frankfurt. The meeting was hosted by Prof. Reinhard Strametz, who is Vice-Chairman and Germany's delegate to the ERNST consortium in his role as Director of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP).

As part of the research meeting, the world's first evidence-based definition of the term second victims, which was created by means of a systematic review, was finally adopted. Furthermore, work packages were adopted to identify best practice approaches from selected high-reliability sectors.

The event, organized by the members of staff of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP), was also used by the delegates of the ERNST consortium, who came from Belgium, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Spain and Germany, for further international networking. Thanks to the excellent organization of Victoria Klemm (coordinator of WiHelP) and Pauline Wilbert (student in the Bachelor's degree program in Health Economics), the event was very well received and thanked by all participants.

Thanks to the convenient location of the HOLM directly at Frankfurt Airport, all delegates were able to travel back to their home countries immediately after the meeting. Next September, WiHelP will host the next European Training School of the ERNST consortium at Wiesbaden Business School.

Further information can be found on the ERNST Consortium website

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz and two of his members of staff took part in the ERNST Training School in Zagreb from October 3 to 5, 2022. Founded in 2020, the ERNST consortium is the European network for research into the second victim problem, which is currently challenging the performance of all European healthcare systems.

A major focus of this network is the organization and implementation of international training schools. This year, a training school was held in Zagreb/Croatia for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prof. Dr. Strametz, deputy chairman of the ERNST consortium and international second victim expert, was on site as a trainer. Hannah Rösner (member of staff) and Victoria Klemm (coordinator of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety) were there as trainees.

The Training School provided around 20 trainees from 12 different EU countries with knowledge on the topic of "second victims" and focused on ways of implementing support services for those affected. In particular, research findings from existing collaborations between the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP) were presented and discussed. While studies and support programs have already been launched in some countries, addressing the second victim phenomenon is still uncharted territory in other countries. The event therefore not only served the purpose of scientific exchange, but also in particular the European transfer of knowledge. The event led directly to new international research collaborations.

We are particularly pleased that next year's annual ERNST Training School will take place at Wiesbaden Business School and that this topic, which is highly relevant to European healthcare systems, can be further developed at our higher education institution.

A delegation from the East African country visited Wiesbaden as part of the third-party funded project SAFE@KCH, Malawi's first patient safety project, funded by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). Two doctors, two nurses and the two heads of quality management at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in the Malawian capital Lilongwe visited the Wiesbaden Business School of Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM) and reported on the status of the cooperation project.

Merry Katantha, Head of the Quality Management Division at KCH, reported on the progress made in terms of patient safety, which has already been improved through the optimization of checklists, forms and the introduction of wristbands with patient data. However, she also pointed out that, in addition to the initial success stories, there are still numerous challenges in the areas of pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative care management. Emmie Jingini, also from the QM division at KCH, presented the measures to ensure hand hygiene. However, as in Germany, there is still room for improvement in the consistent implementation of existing standards.

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, who initiated the joint project, nevertheless spoke of a "lighthouse project for Malawi" and added that patient safety is always an organizational and logistical challenge - regardless of the country. "Support from management is necessary, it's always about resources," said the HSRM physician and economist, who is also Director of the Wiesbaden Institute for Healthcare Economics and Patient Safety (WiHelP). Addressing the healthcare economics students, he said: "You will one day be jointly responsible for ensuring that patient safety happens!"

During their stay, the delegation visited the Helios Dr. Horst Schmidt Clinics and St. Josef's Hospital in Wiesbaden. Here, the delegation toured the operating theaters and the emergency room of the 'Joho'. The delegation's packed program included an expert discussion with the head of the Patient Safety and Quality unit at Frankfurt University Hospital, training as Patient Safety Ambassadors and an academic afternoon followed by a faculty dinner. The participants also took part in an excursion to Berlin to the Aktionsbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (Patient Safety Action Group).

- Survey of all hospitals and rehabilitation facilities on the implementation of clinical risk management (kRM) -

Under the project management of the APS (Aktionsbündnis PatientenSicherheit e.V.), the German Hospital Institute has started the online survey of hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. The questionnaire was extensively revised on the basis of the surveys in 2010 and 2015 and adapted to updated questions, such as the use of critical incident reporting systems, support for staff involved in critical incidents and discharge management.

The questions relate to practical implementation on site in order to develop suggestions for political decision-makers, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities for the further development of risk management and thus increase patient safety.

The categories of the WHO's Patient Safety Action Plan will be recorded in order to align with international safety standards.

We hope that the hospitals and rehabilitation facilities surveyed will be very willing to respond in order to obtain a solid data basis for the further improvement of safety management.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health and carried out together with the following partners:

• Dr. Martina Schmiedhofer, Aktionsbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V.

• Dr. Karl Blum, German Hospital Institute (DKI) Düsseldorf

• Dr. Bernd Metzinger MPH, German Hospital Association (DKG) Berlin

• Prof. Dr. Reinhard Strametz, Chair of Patient Safety, Wiesbaden Business School / Hochschule RheinMain

• Prof. Dr. Matthias Weigl, Institute for Patient Safety (IfPS) at the University of Bonn