20,000 operations have been performed at the University Clinic of St Petersburg University
The first year of work of the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at the University Clinic showed that people need the services of the clinic; which are also available to patients from all over the country. In 2018, more than 22,000 people received inpatient treatment, 62% of them were residents of other regions.
Yury Fedotov, Director of the St Petersburg University’s University Clinic, noted that such indicators are explained quite simply. The main advantages of the medical clinic are highly-trained specialists, good technical equipment, and unique specialisations of medical care.
In 2018, medical staff were able to reduce both the average treatment time and the costs per case. The clinic is based on Kadetskaya Line of Vasilyevsky Island. It has been realigned and re-equiped by setting up three operating rooms and two departments of surgery. This has significantly increased the performance of work. Among the approved measures for further optimisation of work is the introduction of a seven-day working week. This is intended to mobilise all existing reserves of bed capacity.
According to Yury Fedotov, the Clinic of St Petersburg University can now be called a medical centre which is focused on surgery. This is proved by the dynamics of surgical activity – since 2009 it has increased fourfold and continues to grow. In 2018, heart surgeons performed more than 500 open-heart surgeries. Also, last year the specialists of the department of endocrine surgery became the first in the world in the number of successful surgical interventions for patients with endocrine diseases. In total, surgeons from the St Petersburg University Clinic performed more than 20,000 operations over the yea
Since 2018, Traumatology Department No 3 of the Pirogov Clinic has hosted the first Children's Ward where complex surgical repairs are performed. As Head of the Department Vladimir Zavarukhin noted that most of the focus areas of our service are unique for Russia, and some of them are unique for the world.
Also, the reporting period saw a significantly increased number of patients with cardiovascular diseases and women who sought help in the gynaecology department. In the near future, we are planning to open a day patient chemotherapeutic department and a gynaecology outpatient department.
Yury Fedotov said that the Clinic plans to expand the function of internal expert reviews of the medical care quality and create opportunities for online reviews. Another challenge today is the development of the federal network of diagnostic centres on the basis of the medical institution. This network would provide healthcare to patients from most regions of Russia. Consequently, it makes the highly qualified care by specialists from St Petersburg more accessible.
Development strategy for the St Petersburg University Pirogov Clinic includes: the introduction of personal responsibility of the heads of departments for research work; the expansion of cooperation with St Petersburg University scientists; and the creation of the department for coordinating clinical and experimental research. Raul Gainetdinov, the Director of the Institute of Translational Biomedicine, St Petersburg University, has been appointed Academic Supervisor of the St Petersburg University Clinic.
Dmitry Shkarupa, the Assistant Director for medical care administration, Chief Urologist of the Pirogov Clinic, emphasised that, in order to implement the idea of a university clinic, it is necessary to establish continuous communication among theorists and practitioners. This is possible because of both the functional and geographical proximity between the educational and medical units. Also, the continuous exchange of experience between specialists of the clinic and university scientists is needed.
Joint research, started last year at the St Petersburg University resource centres, will also be continued. They are connected with 3D-development of models for orthopaedic surgery. Doctors from the Traumatology Department No 2 and scientists of St Petersburg University take part in them. To implement this project, the University purchased all the necessary equipment – modern multifunctional 3D printers. Other promising areas in 2019 will be research related to the early detection of coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis, as well as the development of a module for controlling the functioning of the bladder based on flexible neuroprostheses-implants.