How the Princess Grace Hospital Center is attracting more and more patients to Monaco

"The CHPG's 2024 activity report demonstrates the abundance of projects implemented by its professionals, a sign of the richness and dynamism of the teams." These are the words of Prince Albert II. For the past ten years, with a dip between 2019 and 2020, the activity of the Princess Grace Hospital Center has continued to grow.

The active patient queue increased by +22% over the period 2011 - 2024; the number of new patients increased by +13.1% from 2011 to 2024, and the number of surgical procedures increased in almost all medical specialties from 2023 to 2024.

A rapid post-Covid recovery

And there are several reasons for this. For the director of the CHPG Benoîte Rousseau de Sevelinges, one of the first explanations is to be found in the Covid crisis. "These data are the consequences of the policy implemented during and after Covid," the director introduces. "We wanted to resume activity very quickly, which allowed us to find patients more quickly than neighboring hospitals. And a certain number of patients who were in the active queue in other establishments remained in Monaco," she continues. This attractiveness is also and above all the consequence of the technical progress that has made it possible to expand the range of care offered at the CHPG.

"The establishment's proven attractiveness is the result of the constant work of the healthcare teams to be as efficient as possible, and also thanks to the Prince's government's investment in high-level technological equipment," says Doctor Mathieu Liberatore, president of the establishment's medical committee, before allowing the director to explain these medical advances.

"In visceral, gynecological, and urological surgery, the robotic strategy implemented is bearing fruit. It allows us to offer highly complex procedures to our patients with very short recovery times. Today, people want to be operated on with a robot because there are fewer complications, less convalescence, and the procedure is more precise. In July 2024, Professor Berthet conducted the first robotic thoracic surgery at CHPG. This is a very rare technical skill and a significant advantage for patients," she explains.

"In ENT, we have a new head of department, Doctor Lazard, who has expanded the range of care. In orthopedics, we have worked a lot on the back, spinal surgery has developed well, I think that this too contributes to the significant increase in activity. In contact radiotherapy, we now have software that allows the beam to be better targeted, and a new device that allows us to treat melanoma in a non-invasive and precise manner," continues Benoîte Rousseau de Sevelinges, in a non-exhaustive manner.

The patient at the heart of the journey

The director places great importance on the patient experience, as evidenced by the positive feedback from satisfaction surveys. In 2024, 92% of patients would recommend the CHPG. "We are maintaining and strengthening our pathway approach. For example, in orthopedics, we have implemented a 'silver ortho' pathway for the elderly. We prepare their surgery, we operate, we support them afterwards... it's an offering in which we have created, so to speak, a competitive advantage over other hospitals. It guarantees quality care for our patients," says the director of the CHPG.

With the arrival of the new CHPG, which will welcome its first patients in 2026, Benoîte Rousseau de Sevelinges and her teams intend to continue expanding their activity, which is sometimes limited by the current site. "We need to rethink the organizations and flows to the new hospital, which is a new, bare building. We will therefore need to bring all the intelligence and skills of our staff to rethink patient pathways, circuits, care protocols... and all of this will keep us busy until the end of the year."

The valuable contribution of AI

Although the use of artificial intelligence is limited to the CHPG, being restricted by "Monegasque regulations which do not allow us to export health data abroad except with an exemption," specifies the director of the CHPG, it has nevertheless been implemented in a concrete manner on certain devices since last year.

"We have integrated an AI module into MRI called 'SmartSpeed'. It improves image quality and image acquisition speed. The examination is shorter, which is particularly useful for children or claustrophobic people. And it's a significant advantage for detecting strokes," notes Benoîte Rousseau de Sevelinges.

Assistance in organizing surgical interventions

"In imaging, we've implemented AI to detect early fractures or breast cancer. In digestive endoscopy, AI allows the endoscopist to better target the part they'll remove next. In anatomic pathology, we've already digitized the department, with the microscope slides visible on the computer. We've added an algorithm that will outline suspicious areas. This saves a lot of time and improves accuracy," she continues. Finally, administration is also not immune to artificial intelligence. "We're using AI to save our managers time on tasks that have little added value. Like developing operating room schedules, which are very complex to do, because each nurse has skills that may be required depending on the procedure."