PORTFOLIO 17

Strengths/Interests

I’ve always been curious about healthcare and the medical sector. When I was about five or six years old, I attended the childrens’ university summer event at the University of Vienna, where I listened to lectures like ‘Why is blood red’. After graduating from high school, I chose to do a voluntary social year, where I trained to be a paramedic and worked as such for the next nine months. To this day, I work as a paramedic voluntary wise, since this experience impacted me a lot. In the medical field, everyone has to work fast and precise, especially under pressure. This is something that I would add to my folder of strengths because I really learned how to stay calm and execute medical help step by step. So far, I was able to save two lives with resuscitation, which are the moments I am most proud of in my life so far. This voluntary work taught me not only how to handle stress, but also how to communicate effectively. When the patients’ life is in danger, there cannot be any miscommunication, so we have special methods to keep the whole team informed about every important detail, so no one misses something like blood pressure vitals. This effective communication is also something I would call one of my strengths.

Due to my interest in the healthcare sector I chose to study the branch of healthcare management. In summer last year, I had an internship at the umbrella cooperation of social security providers and worked with the topic of primary healthcare and primary health care centers specifically. Those two months of internship got me interested in the topic and I was excited when our professors announced the project ‘primary healthcare’. The project team then chose me to be the leader. I think that my biggest quality as a leader and member of a group is that I am able to keep a general overview of the whole project and focus on what needs to be done. When working in teams, I can motivate other members and keep a good working atmosphere.

Overall, I am excited and motivated for the last two months of this project, and still energized even though we are already three months in.

Problem statement

The main problem in the austrian healthcare system is the high retirement number of general practitioners in the next few years. To compensate, the austrian government implicated the primary healthcare law in 2017 (RIS 2017). However, there are various issues with the implementation of these primary healthcare centers: so far there still are no PHCs in Tyrol (Österreichisches Forum Primärversorgung 2020). One issue with the implementation is that those centers have to be attractive not only to the patients, but to the ones implementing and founding them as well – the general practitioners that work as freelancers. Those that would be willing to set up a PHC by investing time, energy and a lot of money face many issues, like low doctor’s fees, shareholder issues, as well as bureaucracy burdens. (Österreichische Ärztekammer 2020).

Therefore, the groups’ task on one hand is to collect experts' opinions and views on the current situation and what kind of steps have to be taken to increase the attractiveness of the system of PHCs for the ones implementing those centers, which are the general doctors themselves. On the other hand, the task is to gather information on whether the residents of the PHC’s location would use such a healthcare facility and what kind of service offers they would take part in and use. 

Bibliography

Österreichisches Forum Primärversorgung (2020): Versorgungskarte. Online verfügbar unter https://primaerversorgung.org/versorgungskarte/, zuletzt geprüft am 05.05.2020.

RIS (2017): Primärversorgungsgesetz. Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes. Online verfügbar unter https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage= Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20009948, zuletzt geprüft am 05.05.2020.

Österreichische Ärztekammer (2020): ÖÄK-Steinhart: Mehr Maßnahmen zur PVE-Attraktivierung. Hg. v. APA-OTS. Online verfügbar unter https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20200127_OTS0075/oeaek-steinhart-mehr-massnahmen-zur-pve-attraktivierung, zuletzt aktualisiert am 27.01.2020, zuletzt geprüft am 06.05.2020.