Parameter | Hospitals of the price survey | Hospitals in total in Austria |
---|---|---|
Number of hospitals | 5 | 266 (December 2008) |
Type of hospitals and geographic distribution | All are general hospitals; 1 in Vienna, 1 in the South East of Austria, 1 in the South, 1 in the North Western part, 1 in the biggest province of Austria | 38% of all hospitals were general hospitals (2007) |
Ownership | All are public hospitals; 4 are owned by Austrian provinces, 1 is in the ownership of a non-profit religious congregation | Around 60% of hospitals are public |
Size of hospitals | 4 are big hospitals (> 500 acute care beds); | 36 hospitals with more than 400 acute care beds |
One hospital is middle sized (between 400 and 500 acute care beds) | ||
Hospital pharmacy | 4 hospitals have a pharmacy; | 17% of all hospitals have a hospital pharmacy (2008). The other, often smaller hospitals are equipped with a pharmaceutical depot |
1 hospital has a “pharmaceutical depot” which is delivered by a wholesaler with an affiliated pharmacy1 | ||
Purchasing policies | Negotiations are the key policy for purchasing medicines in the 5 hospitals. | Same situation for all hospitals in Austria – tendering of medicines is only done in rare cases, but a rising trend can be observed |
Tendering by hospitals is of minor importance in 4 hospitals; | ||
1 hospital commissioned a wholesaler following a tendering process | ||
Level of centralisation in purchasing | Decentralised purchasing (purchasing at hospital level or at the hospital owner level) | Same situation for all hospitals in Austria |
Pharmaceutical expenditure in % of total hospital expenditure | Around 7% of the hospital expenditure | Around 9% of the hospital expenditure |