Sustainability Highlights Magazine 2024

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The image shows a group of healthcare workers or professionals in what appears to be a hospital setting. One person is holding a tablet, all the individuals seem focused on what they are doing or discussing.The person on the right is looking straight into the camera.The image shows a group of healthcare workers or professionals in what appears to be a hospital setting. One person is holding a tablet, all the individuals seem focused on what they are doing or discussing.The person on the right is looking straight into the camera.

Doing the right thing out of conviction

Acting responsibly and in compliance with the law is essential to ensure the well-being of patients. The daily work of our employees is characterized by integrity, a sense of responsibility, and reliability. We hold our business partners and suppliers to the same high standards. We constantly work to prevent incidents that might violate these standards.

Living integrity: Acting in accordance with the law and standards

Our understanding of integrity goes beyond mere legal requirements. For us, doing the right thing means acting not only lawfully, but also in accordance with applicable industry codes, internal guidelines, and our values. Internal and external controls ensure that we comply with regulations and live up to the trust our patients, employees, customers, suppliers, and investors place in us.

We want to become increasingly better at doing this and thoroughly investigate every report for possible violations of compliance – so that we can remedy them and avoid them in the future.

This includes for example the following:

Overview of potential compliance violations (infographic)
How we communicate our values

Transparency and ethical business conduct play a key role in the healthcare sector. The Fresenius Code of Conduct is the basis for all rules that apply within the Group. It sets out the principles of conduct for all employees, including managers at all levels and members of the Management Board. We also strive to promote fair and ethical business conduct outside our own operations. In our Code of Conduct for Business Partners, we clearly communicate our expectations to everyone who works with Fresenius.

The image shows a scene inside a pharmaceutical or biotech facility. There are three individuals visible to the viewer: all wearing blue protective gowns, masks and hair nets. They're all standing near large equipment or machines with screens. Two individuals, likely nurses or healthcare assistants. They are both standing and attentively looking at a phone with the screen facing them, possibly communicating or viewing some information relevant to their work.A woman is standing in front of a screen presenting a graph to others

Whether in production, in the hospital, or in administration – the Fresenius Code of Conduct is the basis for the actions of all our employees.

Support in everyday working life

In addition to our mandatory training courses, we also offer extensive information materials to help our employees act with integrity at all times: be it with special topic pages on the intranet, a podcast or a compliance telephone consultation (anonymous if desired). In addition, colleagues from the Compliance organization are available throughout the Group to answer questions at any time.

Report anything that is incompatible with our values

If our employees or external stakeholders, such as our patients, customers, suppliers, or partners, suspect misconduct in the Fresenius environment – such as violations of laws, regulations or internal guidelines – they can report this through various channels. Our employees can contact their line manager, the responsible compliance officer or use our whistleblower system at any time. The whistleblower system also allows anonymously reporting incidents and is available to external stakeholders as well.

Our designated employees treat reports confidentially in order to protect the reporting individuals. All reports are taken seriously. In an initial assessment, we first evaluate the plausibility and possible severity of potential violations. Once we have completed an investigation, we use the results of internal controls and reports to review our business processes. Where necessary, we take measures for correction or improvement to prevent similar misconduct in the future.

Compliance according to plan

Our compliance management system is based on three pillars: Prevent, Detect, and Respond. We have aligned the system and our measures with the applicable international standards for compliance management systems (such as ISO standards, or auditing standards of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany) and relevant legal frameworks.

Elements of the compliance program