Maryam Ferdowsi
How has Helios Hospitals spread its mighty medical empire across Europe?
Reza Jamili, Founder & Editor in cheif
Among the illustrious and famed medical centers and hospital chains of Germany, the name of two brands shines brighter than others.
Previously we wrote about the credibility and the vast operational capacity of the Charite Hospital, today however it’s time to cover the story of another hospital that unlike the Charite has private ownership and has even managed to export its services outside of German borders.
Unlike the Charite hospital, the Helios hospital does not have the multi-century pedigree and legacy to boast about. It is a more recent and younger group in the German medical scene. Helios also does not benefit from the vast financial backing of the German federal state like the Charite hospitals do and it does not have exclusive universities, academies and research centers to its name. Still it remains as a mighty competitor and outperforms its principal rival in many cases.
History
In 1987, Dr. lutz Helmig founded his first small clinic in the town of Luterbach, later that year he would also found another hospital under the name of Asclepius.
Dr. Lutz Helmig, the founder of Helios Hospitals
After a series of legal disputes, Helmig parted ways with the aforesaid hospitals and founded his new medical group in 1995. He blended the first three letter of his last name and added the last three letters of “Asclepius” and coined his new medical group as “Helios”.
Helios was quick to become a successful business and Dr. Helmig in 2001 from leading his hospitals.
Purchase by Fresenius
By 2004 Helios had grown into having more than 25 active hospitals across Germany with an annual income of more than 1.1 billion Euros being generated by them.
However following Helmig’s retirement and the lack of interest from his family to maintain the management of the hospital, they sold 94 percent of the hospital’s shares to the Fresenius company for a total bid of 1.4 Billion Euros n 2005.
The famous Berlin-Buch clinic of the Helios collective in berlin
Due to the fame and credibility of the Helios’ name several other hospitals that were already under the Fresenius franchise were integrated under the name of Helios and Helios Hospitals became the largest private hospital group in all of Germany.
New Frontiers: Spain
By 2016, Helios had become the largest Hospital group in Germany both among the private and public hospitals. But the ambition of Helios hospitals’ owners was even beyond this. In September 2016, Fresenius-Helios bought the Quironsalud clinics, the largest in Spain and integrated it with Helios Hospitals.
This massive purchase brought 43 new hospital, 39 outpatient clinics and more than 35 thousand new personnel members for Helios hospitals. The purchase which had cost close to 6 billion dollars made Helios the largest medical provider in all of Europe and the first medical collective to become the largest provider in two European countries.
The Role of Helios if German and Spanish Medical Tourism
Considering the fact that Helios is now the largest provider of medical tourism services in both Spain and Germany, and that both of these countries are among the top ten most popular tourism destinations, a considerable amount of treatments in medical tourism of these countries falls on the shoulder of Helios.
Quironsalud Hospital at Barcelona, now integrated with Helios hospitals
Helios currently has 89 super modern hospitals and 128 outpatient clinics active in Germany in which it employs more than 73 thousand personnel. In 2019 these medical centers generated more than 6 billion Euros.
In Helios Hospitals’ Spanish branch also known as Quironsalud, the collective runs over 51 hospitals and 71 outpatient clinics. In these centers they tend to over 15 million patients annually which generates a total of 3 billion Euros of Income.
Helios Hospitals Prevention Clinics
These days of the most popular trends in the science of medicine involves the emphasis of prevention over treatment and clinics specializing in this field are increasingly appearing. These clinics focus on preventing diseases through promoting healthy lifestyles for their patients.
Helios is one of the forerunners of this approach in Europe and other than the aforementioned medical centers, it also operates more than 17 prevention clinics in Germany and Spain.. 11 of these centers are in Spain and the other 6 are in Germany.
the interior of the Helios prevention center at Munich
These prevention centers also offer world class rehabilitation services in the, neurological, orthopedics, cardiac and oncology services.
Notable Treatments of the Helios Hospitals
Although Helios Hospitals are great in number and are scattered across Germany and Spain and therefore have mastery over nearly all medical fields, the official website of the collective emphasizes their mastery over orthopedics, neurosurgery, cardiovascular and pediatric fields as their signature specialties.
Helios Hospitals’ International Patient Department
In order to facilitate the travel of medical tourists and international patients, Helios has separate office just for this task in Berlin which is also in cooperation with the German Medical Union. This office employs a multilingual and competent personnel which will guide the patient from the moment of their first contact all the way through their travel and treatment process.
