New Name – New Management: The Prospitalia Group Becomes the Vivecti Group

New CEO effective August 1, 2023:
Dr. Benjamin I. Behar, long-time Managing Director of the Artemed Hospital Group

The Prospitalia Group, founded in 2015 and comprising a network of healthcare service providers, is undergoing a restructuring. With over 450 employees and annual revenue of 120 million euros, the company has grown over the past five years through complementary acquisitions and organic development into a product and service provider with a strong market presence in the healthcare sector. The group originated as a purchasing cooperative for hospitals founded in 1993. Today, the group comprises nine companies that comprehensively support healthcare providers with products and services, particularly in the areas of procurement and operational cost optimization, digital products and data analytics, as well as by assuming functions as managed services and providing strategic and implementation consulting. These include Prospitalia, Pro Care Management, Wawibox, Miralytik, Prospitalia h-trak, the companies of the WMC, and the Hospital Management Group (HMG). In total, the group generates a procurement volume of more than 3 billion euros in the area of procurement and operational cost optimization, while the group’s digital tools are used by over 3,000 service providers in the inpatient and outpatient sectors worldwide. Additionally, more than 100 hospitals currently utilize the consulting services, and over 30 facilities are currently under management contracts.

Under the new name Vivecti Group (from the Latin viva – alive, and vectis – the lever), the corporate group will be actively positioned as an umbrella brand in the future and will unite the many market-leading specialists even more closely. The vision: With its range of services, the Vivecti Group aims to be the relevant performance partner for hospitals, nursing facilities, medical practices, and other stakeholders in the healthcare sector. The initiator is Dr. Benjamin I. Behar, who has been leading the group as CEO since August 1. “It may sound simple, but in the healthcare market, no one offers such a broad and high-quality range of services as we do,” says Behar, who aims to make the group’s potential available to healthcare providers as a lever, catalyst, and reliable partner.

The group’s strategic repositioning and the management change coincide with current upheavals and challenges in the healthcare sector: Hospitals are suffering from massive staffing shortages and financial problems. More than half of all hospitals do not generate a positive annual result, and according to the German Hospital Association, one in five German hospitals is even threatened with insolvency. At the same time, the federal and state governments have agreed on the key points of an upcoming hospital reform. On the one hand, this reform is intended to move away from the DRG system and guarantee so-called reserve budgets for certain services; on the other hand, it aims to comprehensively reorganize the range of medical services offered by hospitals through classification into new levels. “We can expect shifts in healthcare offerings, and the risk of insolvencies and hospital closures will not decrease but rather increase with the hospital reform,” says Behar. “We want to and will provide optimal support to service providers as partners in the necessary transformations.”

The doctor of business administration is well-versed in the challenges and management of hospitals: For four years, he advised systemically important hospital operators such as Vivantes, the University Medical Center Mainz, and the Klinikverbund Südwest at McKinsey & Company before building one of the fastest-growing hospital groups, Artemed SE. From Artemed’s founding stage with three hospitals to its growth into a nationwide hospital group with a total of 18 high-performing hospitals and 9 medical care centers (MVZ), he served as Managing Director and was primarily responsible for the restructuring and integration of the new hospitals, as well as for procurement and communications. The new CEO brings this expertise to the Vivecti Group.

After nearly 15 years at Artemed, the time had come for him to take on a new challenge. “Being the catalyst that helps our healthcare providers operate more successfully is an enormously fulfilling mission for me, as cost-effectiveness is the fundamental prerequisite for medical quality and ultimately benefits the patient. Cost-effectiveness and medical quality are not contradictory; rather, they are mutually dependent. That is why, to enhance our partners’ performance, we offer a range of services and products from market-leading companies that is as broad and integrated as any other corporate group in this form.”

With the federal government’s planned hospital reform, Behar notes, the combined service portfolio of the Vivecti Group companies is becoming even more significant. “The redistribution of services among hospitals at different levels of care and the ongoing shift toward outpatient care will lead to fundamental pressure for reorganization within hospitals. This requires transparent data, smart concepts, bold decisions, additional management capacity, and consistent and swift implementation. We see ourselves as the ideal partner for providing comprehensive, one-stop support through market-leading experts and products.”

Furthermore, the area of operational cost management will be given the highest priority for the hospitals. “The latest key points paper from the Federal-State Working Group on Hospital Financing mentions a performance-independent reimbursement of 60% of standby costs. However, the financing of case-related material costs is to remain explicitly guaranteed. Since a hospital’s material costs typically account for about 40% of revenue, these will remain controllable, and their management will significantly determine the company’s economic success. Within material costs, medical supplies account for the largest share of expenses. In addition to favorable purchasing terms and prices, product portfolio management, supplier and product selection, sustainable user compliance, and dialogue at the executive and chief physician levels on strategic procurement topics are also important and will ultimately make the difference.” Services such as managed services and digital solutions for optimizing material costs, particularly medical supplies, represent a key area of expertise for the Vivecti Group and demonstrate the complementary nature of the group companies in terms of their value to customers par excellence.

Benjamin Behar also considers this appeal important: “We are not only a responsible and reliable partner for companies already facing difficulties. Taking early action based on one’s own strengths is usually more sensible and less stressful. We monitor current trends, have strong opinions, and act proactively on behalf of our partners.” The Group therefore supports clinics and hospital associations in terms of their future direction, both economically and professionally. “We act as a lever, as a driver of innovation, making healthcare providers more successful again in this changing environment.”