Reinhard Hoffmann is someone who fits the description "of the old kind".

He speaks what he thinks.

Direct and unembellished.

His philosophy seems to be that the world cannot be changed in silence.

The hospital world, a cosmos of its own, certainly not.

Hoffmann, in his mid-60s, is chief physician for trauma surgery and orthopedic surgery as well as medical director at the professional association accident clinic (BGU).

After all these years in the profession, one thing is still driving him: he wants to improve patient care.

Marie Lisa Kehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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As a trauma center in the Rhine-Main area, the BG Unfallklinik has been taking care of seriously injured patients from the region for 60 years.

An anniversary that will be celebrated this year.

When the helicopter lands on the roof of the clinic, a team of doctors and nurses from various disciplines gets ready in the shock room a few floors below.

The tension when a patient is admitted with an unclear injury pattern cannot be relieved even with a lot of routine.

That was the case 60 years ago.

And that is still the case today.

However, the way of working has changed significantly over the years, as Hoffmann explains.

Thanks to standardized processes, among others defined by the so-called trauma network of the German Society for Trauma Surgery, of which the BGU is also a member as a supraregional trauma center, it has been possible in recent decades to continue to increase the survival rate of seriously injured patients.

There were many small building blocks

such as an improvement in storage techniques and the further development of intensive care medicine, which would have led to better results.

Hoffmann also mentions the cooperation with specialized doctors from other clinics, which contributes to the fact that more and more seriously injured people survive.

However, for every tenth patient, despite all attempts to work even more efficiently, faster and more innovatively, any help comes too late due to the severity of the injuries.

Health insurance companies save on rehabilitation measures

The statistics help to make the work in the shock room measurable and comparable.

What the numbers don't reflect is the severity of the impairments that patients struggle with after an accident.

Binary classification is made into “survived” and “not survived”.

However, Hoffmann makes it clear again and again that after such an event, which can often be equally traumatizing for body and psyche, it is a matter of follow-up care.

Here, he says in his usual clear way, the differences in the healthcare system are striking.

If patient care is covered by the professional associations, for example because it is an accident at work, the therapy and treatment options are often more diverse.

The cooperatives have recognized that, especially in the case of young patients who ideally will be reintegrated into the labor market, "the early use of all suitable means brings a better result" - especially in the long term.

In Hoffmann's opinion, the equation is simple: if you can quickly get back on your feet and actively participate in life again, it will cost the professional associations less in the long run.

"It hurts all the more that we can't offer this for all patients." Because, according to Hoffmann, the statutory health insurance companies often don't do this calculation.

Only the

what is absolutely necessary at the moment, not with what requires an investment in the short term, but pays off in the long term.

This applies in particular to rehabilitation measures.