Major changes are taking place in Kaunas: a new hospital will start operating

Kaunas is preparing for major changes: on September 8, after the merger of Kaunas Clinical and Republican Kaunas Hospitals, the new LSMU Kaunas Hospital will start operating. The interconnection of institutions will improve the quality of treatment and ensure that patients receive necessary services in a timely manner. Duplicate services will also be eliminated and closer cooperation will improve the efficiency of the new treatment facility.

“For many years, we have been talking about the reorganization of the hospital network in Lithuania, which is really necessary. At the Lithuanian level, this merger of hospitals could become a good example of how services should be combined, infrastructure should be saved and human resources, and little needed services should be abandoned, ”says the director of the Kaunas Republican Hospital, Assoc. Diana Žaliaduonytė.

She believes that it is very important to find out what services patients need most today when planning for change and why doctors in certain areas are hard to reach for patients.

D. Žaliaduonytė notes that in some hospitals in the country the infrastructure and equipment are not fully used. Connecting medical institutions, joining forces and optimizing is one of the ways to solve this problem. “And the competition will continue to exist. After all, public hospitals can compete with private clinics. Why not? The competition between specialists will continue, because today a person still chooses first a doctor and only later an institution medical ”, says D. Žaliaduonytė.

According to her, the changes will also benefit the hospital staff itself: optimizing activities will save more money and improve working conditions. The closer ties with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences will also encourage employees to follow the path of science and pedagogy. Doctors and nurses will also be able to participate more actively in various projects, clinical trials, where there will be opportunities to earn extra money, improve their qualifications, and train others.

Director of the Kaunas Clinical Hospital prof. Albinas Naudžiūnas claims that the merger of medical institutions helps to solve several emerging challenges, and the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of hospital cooperation.

“I am confident that merging and working in a competitive partnership, not a competitive environment, will further improve work efficiency. Specialists in therapy, diagnostics, surgery, physical rehabilitation, obstetrics and gynecology, and other medical fields work at both institutions. Kaunas doctors connected. Both the Kaunas Clinical Hospital and the Kaunas Republican Hospital have their own areas where they are regional leaders. Instead of competing, we will have cooperation and coordination of actions, we will optimize patient flows, which will improve the availability of medical services in Kaunas and throughout the region, ”says A. Naudžiūnas.

He also realizes the growing scientific and pedagogical potential of the new hospital: students and teachers will have a broader and more diverse material base, more opportunities to become familiar with diseases, treatment methods and implement innovative projects.

“The new LSMU Kaunas Hospital will be attractive for EU investments in infrastructure, human, medical and technical potential, improving the quality of service. Kaunas will become the first big city in the country, where not only primary medical care is organized systematically but also hospital ”, says A. Naudžiūnas about the connection of hospitals.