Decision-makers from the hotel, tourism, healthcare and politics industry will meet for the fifth time on September 11, 2019 for the “Health & Tourism” conference. Online registration for the early bird rate is now open.
Speaker in an interview
With luxurious suites and other additional offers, the Nidwalden Cantonal Hospital in Stans is increasingly recruiting self-payers. Are health tourists from home and abroad a way to maintain public hospitals in rural areas? Hospital Director Urs Baumberger in an interview with “Health & Tourism.”
that Nidwalden Cantonal Hospital raises the bar one step higher with its new patient suites: On more than 50 square meters, they offer elegant furniture, parquet flooring, a large screen TV, a separate lounge area or business corner with a PC, monitor and printer/scanner/copier.
“Health & Tourism”: Mr. Baumberger. In the past, such suites were only known from international TV series. Are they reserved for foreign self-payers?
Urs Baumberger: Definitely not! With us, every privately insured person automatically receives such a suite. Semi-privately insured persons receive an upscale one-room and general insured persons receive a double room.
The whole thing feels like a luxury hotel. How do you address your clients: as guests or as patients?
With us, you can be a customer, guest, person or patient.
How much does the insurance company pay for it?
Suites for privately insured persons or one-rooms for semi-privately insured persons are covered by insurance companies. Additional services from the hotel industry, transportation, additional rooms or special security go extra, of course.
The magazine “Bilanz” talks about “Gold-standard luxury hospital”. How are locals reacting to your new offerings?
They are very satisfied with us; after all, their care is our first service mandate. The fact that we serve a higher proportion of privately, semi-privately insured and self-payers ultimately benefits locals. We can invest the additional profits in our employees and the entire infrastructure. At the opening of the suites, a newspaper aptly headlined: “The basic insured person can clap their hands.”
They run a public hospital. Wouldn't such offers be more the responsibility of private providers?
Free choice of hospital, new hospital financing and DRG lump sums have sparked competition among hospitals. Public and private hospitals are therefore becoming more and more alike. We see ourselves as a “public private hospital” and offer the best of both worlds.
Thanks to close cooperation with the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, we can also combine the benefits of a large central hospital with those of a smaller regional hospital. Our success proves us right: In the past year, we were able to make considerable gains in the inpatient sector and among supplementary insured persons.
The alpine region is sparsely populated and it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure comprehensive medical care. Does health tourism help finance infrastructure for locals?
Health tourism can only contribute to profitability, nothing more. Only a few providers with excellent and differentiating services will be able to cut a piece of the healthcare tourism cake.
Critics suspect that luxury guests who have arrived do not need the same equipment and facilities as the patients who live in the region. Is there a contradiction?
To remain competitive, you primarily need good personnel and an appropriate infrastructure. The same devices and facilities are used for the vast majority of treatments for general insured persons or self-payers.
In addition, individual devices or equipment may be purchased for self-payers for special treatments that are not subject to health insurance. However, such investments are only possible if they can be quickly amortized.
With the Waldhotel Burgenstock An internationally renowned health hotel has started operations nearby. Do you benefit from this or is it more of a competition?
As a partner, we have coordinated our offers well and contractually agreed. We therefore benefit from each other. The focus is on the guest: they receive a well-coordinated, as comprehensive range of services as possible from both houses.
After treatment in your home, many patients go into rehabilitation. Is Central Switzerland also benefiting from this?
Absolutely! We work closely with the rehabilitation department of the Waldhotel on Bürgenstock, but also with other institutions in central Switzerland. There are several rehabilitation services in the region and occasionally there are also spa hotels that have been accommodating and treating supplementary insured persons, self-payers and “health tourists” for years. The cooperation is based on partnership and is usually problem-free.
Urs Baumberger (55)
has been director of the Nidwalden Cantonal Hospital in Stans for 10 years (www.ksnw.ch) and Deputy CEO of the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital. The KSNW has 560 employees and around 65,000 patient contacts/consultations as well as 5,350 inpatients annually. Baumberger is an engineer with an Executive MBA and a Swiss Dipl. organizer. He used to work for Hirslanden for 13 years; before that, he spent seven years as director of a private hospital.
Urs Baumberger, together with other top speakers and panel participants from Germany and abroad, will be a speaker at the 5th “Health & Tourism” conference:
- Urs Baumberger | Director | Nidwalden Cantonal Hospital | Stans
- Prof. Verena Briner | Medical Director | Waldhotel Bürgenstock
- Marcus Caduff | Governing Council | Canton of Graubünden
- Letizia Elia | Head of Business Development | Switzerland Tourism | Zurich
- Markus Fisch | Clinic Manager | Rehab Seewis | Seewis
- Prof. Markus Lohmann | Tourism Researcher | Leuphana University | Lüneburg (D)
- Max Nadig | President | Spas and health resorts Switzerland | Herisau
- Georg Schäppi | CEO | High Mountain Clinic | Davos
- Jürg Schmid | President | Holidays in Graubünden | Chur
Sign up for the early bird rate now!
Online registration is now open. Participation in the all-day conference, including breaks, lunch and drinks, costs just CHF 200 at an early bird rate (students with Legi: 100.-) Online registration at: www.udir.ch
Health & tourism
The “Health & Tourism” conference is a private initiative for the Alpine region. It is aimed at service providers from tourism, healthcare and industry as well as decision makers from politics and associations and aims to highlight opportunities and market opportunities for health tourism development in the Alpine region.
Organizer/ Media contact
Christian Gartmann AG, St. Moritz
Christian Gartmann
+41 79 355 78 78
christian@gartmann.biz