Outsourcing in the German hospital sector

Being under pressure both from demographic changes in most industrialised countries and increasingly scarce financial resources in social security, in the last decade the German hospital sector tried to find some relief in outsourcing of services not belonging to its core competences like IT services, catering and cleaning. However, not all the hopes connected with this strategy have been fulfilled. This paper takes stock of the current situation of outsourcing in the German hospital sector mainly by the size of the institution. It describes the patterns of outsourcing in the sector, looks at the reasons for outsourcing, and describes the experiences with it of the hospitals on the one hand and the service providers on the other. We conclude by expressing our expectations concerning the foreseeable future of outsourcing in the German hospital sector.