From product supplier to a trusted partner

Much has happened since Getinge was founded in 1904 in the small town of Getinge, Sweden. Now with operations in 39 countries, sales in more than 125 countries and more than 10,800 employees worldwide, the company has transitioned from selling products to a trusted partner with customer focused solutions that contribute to quality enhancements and cost efficiencies for healthcare systems in the UK, Ireland and the world.

“Our solutions are designed to help healthcare providers improve patient outcomes, drive efficiency, and maximise their return on investment,” says Avril Forde, president, North Europe and managing director of Getinge UK & Ireland.

Ms Forde continues: “With a global network of experts and 25,000 customers across 120 countries, we can offer our partners valuable insights from all over the world – and our local teams are always ready to help anytime, anywhere, with a deep understanding of the market and the unique needs of each customer’s facilities.”

Getinge has grown considerably, mainly through acquisitions, over the last two decades. In 2000, the acquisition of Maquet enabled the Swedish-based enterprise to start provisioning operating theatres, and the expansion continued with the integration of several companies within OR equipment and critical care. Since 2008, Getinge has also contributed to clinical progress in the field of cardiology with acquisitions such as Datascope and Atrium.

Five years ago, this family of healthcare and life science brands – including Maquet, Lancer, Atrium, Pulsion, Datascope, Steritec, Stericool, Trans and others – were merged into one single Getinge brand.

The recent acquisition of Applikon Biotechnology in 2020 strengthens the offering of advanced bioreactor systems from research to production within the Life Science area.

“We have an extensive brand portfolio with products, solutions and services for intensive care, operating theatres, sterile reprocessing, cardiovascular procedures and life science. Our purpose is as true today as it has always been – we want to empower our customers with the knowledge, expertise, technology and resources to save lives. Our brand promise of Passion for Life is not just words, it’s at the heart of everything we do,” says Zah Hussain, director of marketing and communications, North Europe.

Combining industry-leading solutions into a holistic offering

Getinge’s intensive care portfolio includes innovative life-supporting products and solutions for ICUs and intensive care transport that can improve clinicians’ ability to save more lives and reduce long-term complications.

The operating room offering features advanced life-saving therapies and equipment, digital patient management, and the design and implementation of both standard and hybrid operating rooms made to handle a broad range of procedures and patient needs.

Getinge has been working with sterile reprocessing since the early 1930s, and presently the company offers customised and flexible solutions for the complete CSSD, including equipment, consumables and software that can enable hospitals to increase throughput of sterile instruments with the highest level of infection control.

Within cardiovascular surgery, there are solutions for open-heart surgery, advanced monitoring technologies and minimally invasive therapies that help clinicians to conduct successful surgeries as well as to enhance visibility and awareness of patient status.

Finally, the life science business area covers a complete range of sterilisation equipment and transfer systems for pharmaceutical production and medical research institutes, customisable and designed for end-to-end contamination free processes and workflows.

“Our vision is to become the worlds most respected and trusted medtech company, and the ability to combine all our industry-leading solutions into one holistic offering, which can be individually tailored for the customer, is one of strongest assets,” Mr Hussain explains.

Sustainability and EcoDesign

By using EcoDesign principles to design products with special consideration for the environmental impact during their entire lifecycle, Getinge proactively minimises the use of materials, ensures that products are recyclable and help customers reduce their consumption of energy, water and other consumables.

“Our sustainability work is an integral part of our passion for life. We are committed to conducting business that is socially, ethically and environmentally sound across the entire value chain. By respecting our customers, employees and the planet in everything we do, we make a positive impact on society, today and in the future,” Mr Hussain continues.

Cutting surgical backlogs with digital tools

Helping hospitals to catch up with the backlog of surgeries in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic has been an important focus area for Getinge.

Research by the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery shows that 50 million operations globally were cancelled in the first pandemic wave – and that a restart has only been partially successful due to lack of capacity.

In the UK, the NHS has expedited its digitisation plans as a point of necessity throughout the pandemic, with the aim to use additional digital tools in order to realise the full efficiency potential, encouraging staff to work smarter, not harder.

“Our global expertise and significant legacy in operating theatres has enabled us to develop several successful solutions for supporting hospitals in their efforts to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for an operation,” Amy Rothwell, general manager, Healthcare UK & Ireland says.

Getinge’s Torin OptimalQ and Torin OR Management are designed to help hospitals utilise their surgical capacity in the best possible way.

Torin OptimalQ was launched in the summer of 2020 as a direct result of the acute situation during the pandemic. The service is scalable, easy to deploy, and delivers quick results for staff and patients.

By merging statistics in different areas, such as surgical times and best planning practices, with the customer’s own waiting list data, the tool can calculate the best way to prioritise the surgeries and propose a schedule for the upcoming weeks.

In addition, Getinge’s Patient Flow system INSIGHT gives a hospital complete control over the patient flow from arrival to discharge. It supports the highest standards of care by allowing staff to plan, prioritise and take action to manage patients and beds with a clear overview across the hospital.

As data is shared in real-time, INSIGHT enables better decision-making on all levels, from the individual caregiver to the hospital management.

Both Torin and INSIGHT can be connected with existing systems and deliver a simple and intuitive way of working. These solutions can be implemented separately or deployed in conjunction with each other.

“Successful implementation has been seen across hospitals worldwide and from across all types and sizes of sites. These software solutions can deliver efficiencies and operational improvements across hospital disciplines, which in turn deliver significant savings, improve working environments and ultimately help reduce the NHS elective backlog,” Ms Forde explains.

Partnership is the key to success

Getinge’s new technologies and new approaches have demonstrated results, from increased throughput to decreases in average length of stay and reducing non-contact clinical time for staff, all helping to reduce waiting lists and improve patient outcomes.

None of this would have been achievable without the partnership approach, where both the hospital and Getinge work together, sharing best practice, and delivering solutions to agreed common goals.

Flexible Commercial Solutions, which improve efficiency and productivity while minimising financial and operational risks are vital components in Getinge’s partnerships with healthcare organisations in the UK and Ireland.

Solutions are designed to meet each hospital’s individual needs, and they come with the flexibility to make changes at any time.

“We guarantee that the chosen solution performs as well on the last day of the contract as on day one. This means that we maintain all equipment to guaranteed availability, so you can plan your work flow with confidence. We also carry out safety related updates and improvements at no extra cost,” says Getinge’s service programme manager Bob Allen, who has been with company for 20 years.

Bob continues: “As a Getinge partner, all your needs for planning, maintenance and support go through one single source, saving you time and resources. Customers can choose from a variety of preventive service plans and rely on our certified technicians to resolve any issue.”

Education and training

Getinge’s education and training solutions bring together healthcare professionals from all over the world, empowering them with advanced clinical and technical programs.

Participants can benefit from technical and operational training, to maximise the use of Getinge equipment. There are also opportunities to gain insights and clinical know-how for implementing new options for improved treatment, including skills needed to operate a new software solution efficiently.