Operations and Business Environment - Fresenius Medical Care

02. 4 Our Fiscal Year
100
guidelines and our Compliance Program, we aim to
fulfill our own expectations as well as those of our
partners, while aligning our business activities with
recognized standards as well as local laws and regulations.
Further details on our Compliance Program
can be found on page 82 .
Employees who are trusted with confidential or socalled
insider information are under obligation to
comply with relevant guidelines and will handle the
information responsibly.
Our success depends significantly on the dedication,
motivation and abilities of our employees. The risk of
a shortage of qualified personnel is counteracted by
pre-emptive measures, such as employee development
programs and comprehensive recruiting. We offer our
employees performance-related pay and attractive
social benefits. Further details on the Fresenius Medical
Care stock option plans can be found on page 81 .
In addition, we launched several initiatives to further
increase job satisfaction of clinical staff in order to
improve motivation and retention of qualified staff in
our clinics. The initiatives will implement improvement
measures, where appropriate, based on a thorough
satisfaction analysis. We work against a general shortage
of trained clinical personnel using targeted marketing
programs to locate qualified and motivated personnel
for our clinics and thus ensure a high standard of
treatment quality. Risks presented by employee recruiting
are seen as insignificant due to risk management
strategies.
Acquisitions. Potential financial risks arising from acquisitions
and capital expenditures are identified ahead
of time by performing careful, in-depth reviews with
the help of external and internal professionals. Potential
acquisitions or divestitures are also reviewed at regular
intervals by a committee using internal guidelines
based on various key factors such as profitability ratios.
The development of acquisitions is monitored using
specific financial indicators including Return on Invested
Capital (ROIC), cash flow and performance ratios.
IT Risks. Fresenius Medical Care uses the current hardware
and software to reduce potential risks from information
technology (IT). Our IT infrastructure is running
on a high level of reliability and uptime. Potential IT
risks are controlled by detailed disaster recovery plans,
which are tested and improved on a regular basis.
Fresenius Medical Care operates three geographically
separate data centers with associated disaster recovery
sites, thus further reducing the potential impact of
a disaster at any one site. We use mirrored infrastructure
for critical systems, including clinical systems and
communication servers. To avoid manipulation or
unauthorized access to sensitive data and programs,
we use access protection and internal guidelines to
govern authorization. Procedures are monitored for
adherence/compliance in the context of paragraph
404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Operational and security
audits are renewed annually.
Legal Risks. Risks associated with litigation are constantly
identified, assessed and communicated within
our organization. Fresenius Medical Care is involved
in various legal proceedings resulting from business
operations. Among them are subpoenas from the U.S.
Department of Justice, Eastern District of Missouri in
St. Louis, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern
District of New York, for business activities of Fresenius
Medical Care. Although it is not possible to predict the
outcome of these disputes, none are expected to have
a significant adverse impact on the asset, financial and
earnings position of the Group. For details, please refer
Fresenius Medical Care 2006