Re-examining access points to the different levels of health care: a cross-sectional series in Austria

Giving patients a voice for healthcare reform in Austria: the qualitative voice-study

BACKGROUND

Inclusion of patients in healthcare service and system planning is an increasingly important tool to improve healthcare systems worldwide. In 2012, a focused healthcare reform was initiated in Austria to strengthen the primary care sector which is still underway in 2023.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions, desires, and needs of patients in terms of primary care as a necessary building block of the Austrian healthcare reform.

METHODS

This study was designed as an exploratory qualitative study using semi-structured interviews between the years 2013 and 2018. Interviews with patients focused on positive and negative experiences with regard to general practice (GP) consultations and perceptions of the primary care system in general, as well as desires for improvement. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the material using the software atlas.ti.

RESULTS

Altogether, 41 interviews were conducted with seven categories identified. These categories include organization and time management around consultation, access, and availability including opening hours, human and professional aspects of consultation, infrastructure and hygiene of the waiting room, healthcare system factors, as well as non-clinical/administrative staff.

CONCLUSIONS

Appreciating and responding to patients' perceptions and needs, healthcare reform in Austria should include improvements regarding consultation/waiting time, coordination, and navigation in Primary Care. Successful healthcare reform has to include the patient voice.

Experiences of Vegans with General Practitioners in the Austrian Health Care System: A Qualitative Study

This article explores the factors influencing the choice of general practitioners (GPs) and their role in the health care of vegans in Austria. The number of people identifying as vegan is on the rise, and GPs are increasingly confronted with vegan patients. A qualitative method was chosen for this study, and 14 semi-structured interviews with vegans were conducted between April 2022 and July 2022. Participants were recruited primarily through vegan social media groups. In their experiences with health care, vegans felt treated unequally or sometimes incorrectly. The experiences described highlight that participants felt that most GPs were biased against their veganism. Information exchange among vegans primarily takes place online and through publications of vegan associations, while GPs play a minor role in information provision. As the number of vegans grows, an appreciative way of communicating between GPs and vegan patients ought to be promoted. Voluntary interdisciplinary nutritional training, collaboration of the medical field with support organizations, provision of evidence-based information, and collaboration with dietitians and nutritionists could enrich the care of patients with a vegan diet.

A Comparison of the United States and Austrian Healthcare Needs and Systems

Austria and the United States have very different healthcare systems with Austria following a social insurance model and the United States following an out of pocket model however;gross domestic product on healthcare expenditures. There is a current gap in literature on how the United States and Austrian healthcare systems comparatively impact patient outcomes, especially when considering the mediating effects of societal norms such as exercise and mental self-care habits. The information presented could benefit the United States healthcare system if they adopted Austria's model, which expands access, and the Austrian healthcare system regulators could look to American standards of communication and care coordination to improve their healthcare system overall.