Table 2 Characteristics of the hospitals included in the survey

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