THE EAST-WEST-CONNECTION
Perhaps the most important hub for the transfer of knowledge and expertise in Eastern Europe for Fresenius Medical Care is the Medical Academy for Postgraduate Studies in St. Petersburg. This venerable institution was founded in the 19th century by order of the czar. Today, the worn linoleum floors of its affiliated clinic reflect the flickering light of old neon light tubes. Nurses, patients and visitors hurry through the labyrinthine corridors. As if from another world, a priest suddenly steps out of one of the rooms into the corridor with a dignified demeanor. The gold webbing on his heavy brocade train has an almost mystical glow. “Amen – and God bless you,” he hums in a Russian singsong. The old man with his white bushy beard blesses people in the corridor with holy water, accompanied by his sustained murmuring. The air is filled with incense and the world seems to come to a halt for a moment. The people pause in contemplation, cross themselves, some kneel, some receive his blessing and then continue on their way with x-rays under their arm or pushing hospital beds in front of them. Old women with crooked backs lug enormous cooking pots. The scent of fresh piroshki, a Russian national dish, dispels the incense for a while, and then it simply smells of hospital again.
Aleksey Vaganov-Panikarovski knows these corridors, the nurses, the doctors – and also the clinic priest. He works in the sales division of Fresenius Medical Care. “In my job, hospitals are the most important place, because it is the attending physicians whom we must convince of the quality of our products,” Vaganov-Panikarovski says. He studied medicine and psychiatry, and is familiar with the corridors of all the hospitals in this city and its surroundings. “Chief physicians are highly respected in Russia,” he explains. This makes it all the more important that he is convincing on a personal level first and foremost. “A doctor will invite me into his office, and we first talk at length about the weather and our families – and when we have got to know each other and sized each other up a bit, then we go on to discuss business matters,” he reveals.
A cramped elevator jerks upwards. Aleksey Vaganov-Panikarovski leans against the back wall. Black buttons peer out of a lopsided control panel next to him and a small lamp gives off a weak light. The elevator door opens on the top floor. Vaganov-Panikarovski shows us the way along a corridor under a sloping roof. He stops in front of a white wooden door, softly presses down the handle and puts his head into the room. Inside, doctors in white coats are sitting in a lecture theater, listening to a man speaking animatedly to his audience. Professor Konstantin Gurevich is one of the leading dialysis experts in Russia, as well as being medical director of Fresenius Medical Care in this country. He signals to us to wait for another five minutes and take a seat in his office.
Professor Konstantin Gurevich is a cordial man. He welcomes all visitors, colleagues and students alike, with the same warm smile. He proudly wears his white coat as if it was full military dress. Underneath it, his suit and tie are immaculately arranged. He has played a part in shaping Fresenius Medical Care’s success in Russia for many years. In the past, as a practicing physician, he advocated the use of Fresenius Medical Care’s high-quality equipment in the hospitals under his responsibility. Now his job is primarily to ensure that Fresenius Medical Care’s employees in Russia and other Eastern European countries also have access to the Company’s expertise and knowledge. Gurevich is in charge of the nephrology department at the Medical Academy for Postgraduate Studies and in the hospitals it manages. He is responsible for training physicians and nurses from all parts of Russia. Doctors also come from the former Soviet republics to bring their knowledge in the area of dialysis and nephrology up to date. Some of his lectures are public, but others are reserved for Fresenius Medical Care employees.
Professor Gurevich places white porcelain tableware decorated with red flowers on his desk. He serves us tea and confectionery from boxes bearing greetings from colleagues, patients or students. His bookcase holds an old framed photograph showing Gurevich as a medical student during an operation. “The man next to me was one of the most famous surgeons in Russia at the time,” he says, smiling. Gurevich now knows almost all the renowned physicians in Russia and the bordering republics.
Here in St. Petersburg, Gurevich trains all the doctors and nurses who work for Fresenius Medical Care. “My goal is to enable a dialysis nurse in Ulyanovsk to benefit from the same experience and acquire the same knowledge as someone who works in Berlin or New York,” he explains. Gurevich is responsible for all of Fresenius Medical Care’s dialysis clinics throughout Russia, which he supervises from his office in St. Petersburg – and it is from here that he has access to the clinical treatment data of all centers. Every Tuesday, he holds a phone conference which all of the Company’s clinics in the country can join. In it, the clinics’ medical results are discussed. With particularly difficult medical cases, they also debate how to best tailor treatment to the needs of the patients. “But ultimately, I am here for all of our employees, to answer their questions, every day and all day,” Gurevich says in an authoritative and fatherly way.
He also frequently travels across climate and time zones to the more remote corners of this gigantic country, to get a firsthand impression on location. He has managed this workload for many years. As a young doctor, he was in the war in Afghanistan, and also in Vietnam. “I have seen a lot,” Gurevich says, and one can only guess at what lies behind such a statement. Perhaps that is why this man is so full of zest for life and action. He still has one major ambition: to set up his own training institute, an academy for the employees of all Fresenius Medical Care clinics in Russia. Until then, the Company will have to rely on the state certificates awarded by the academy in St. Petersburg. Gurevich is working on obtaining this state certification for a future Fresenius Medical Care Academy. “This would allow us to pass on our expertise to a much greater extent than we can so far,” Gurevich believes. He hopes to be able to open his academy in 2012 at the latest.
Managing director Aleksey Myagkov considers these efforts to train and educate Russian employees to be very important. “So much is changing in this country and the professional requirements are quite different from what they were a few years ago. We need employees who are able to meet these demands,” Myagkov says. To spread a company’s philosophy, the employees must also be able to experience it. This is why almost all Fresenius Medical Care’s Russian employees visit the headquarters of the parent company in Bad Homburg at least once. Managers such as Dr. Myagkov or Professor Gurevich come here regularly for an annual conference. Then their German colleagues like Christina Winter have abundant opportunities to speak Russian with them.