Increasingly More Patients Being Treated at One of the Oldest Private Hospitals in Austria – Wiener Privatklinik Seeking Medical Staff and Partners from Serbia

Medical treatment abroad is a necessity and need for citizens of numerus countries in Europe and beyond. Waiting lists, medicines not being available and even modern treatments not being available are just some of the reasons why patients from Serbia choose to seek medical care abroad increasingly often. When it comes to the choice of a medical institution, our citizens, but also citizens from the entire region, are increasingly putting their trust in one of the most influential private clinics in Austria – Wiener Privatklinik (WPK).

What is it that makes patients choose to be treated at this hospital? Primarily it’s a good team of doctors, says Prim. Dr. Walter Ebm, CEO of the clinic.

– Having a good clinic means having the right people in one’s team. We are proud of having the best doctors in Austria, and some of them are the best in their fields in the whole world. This is shown by the numerous acknowledgments and certificates by various world organizations – Ebm says.

On the other hand, he says, the quality of the service you provide to your patients is important as well.

– At this clinic, we do a really good job. This is proven by the fact that, for the second year in a row, we have been pronounced one of the best hospitals in the world – he adds.

Another reason why patients choose WPK is that this hospital provides their patients with a whole package of services. Not only one doctor, but an entire team of experts, works on their case, and there are also various forms of support, depending on the needs of each patient.

The medical services provided by Wiener Privatklinik are grouped in around 15 centers, whereby the oncology center of this hospital – WPK Central European Academy Cancer Center, is the most complex and reputable private center for cancer diagnostics and treatment in Central and Eastern Europe.

The hospital employs 350 workers and cooperates with over 400 medical doctors who are experts in various fields. Stanford has included as many as nine doctors from this hospital among the 10% best world experts. Among them are the world-famous oncology doctor Christoph Zielinski, but also Walter Klepetko, a lung transplant expert, who is known here for leading the team of doctors who carried out the first lung transplant at the expense of the National Health Insurance of Serbia in 2012.

Last year, over 12,000 patients were treated at this hospital, of which 30% international ones from over 20 countries. As they say, patients from Eastern and Central Europe are predominant. If we’re talking patients from abroad, the hospital receives around 5,000 of them on average, and the main markets are Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and now Serbia as well.

– When it comes to patients from Serbia, we are recording an organic growth. Last year, we received close to 100. Considering that 2021 was a Covid year, that is a truly significant number. It is important to note that those were patients who came to the clinic exclusively based on other patients’ recommendations, as well as the reputation of the hospital and our doctors – Ema Hafner, Head of Marketing and International Business Department at WPK, says for eKapija.

According to her, the medical services that patients from abroad, but also from Serbia, come to WPK for are most frequently oncology services – surgery, immunotherapy and chemotherapy, genetic tests or prevention. There’s also reconstructive surgery, chest surgery, cardiology, traumatology, peripheral nerve surgery… Also, patients often come for the services of getting another opinion to the end of making an accurate and correct diagnosis.

If patients from Serbia or the region want to get treatment at WPK, the procedure is very simple. This clinic has a special team of people who are at the service of patients from abroad.

– They first need to contact our marketing department, within which we have a special email address meant for patients from abroad. They then get assigned a person who is in charge of their case and to whom they present their health problem. The next stop is communication with the doctor who takes over the patient and forms a team in charge of the concrete case. Before coming to the clinic, the patient can have online consultations with out doctors, thanks to the online health center – Hafner says.
At WPK, they are proud of having employees from a large number of countries. All the doctors, but also a good part of other medical staff speak English and often another foreign language as well. This means that communication with patients is not a problem and there is no language barrier, because they can also talk to the staff in their native language. At the clinic, for example, there are three nurses from Serbia, who are at the service of patients from our country, but also other countries of the region.

At the clinic, they say that they are always open to employing staff from Serbia.

–As other hospitals in Europe, WPK is faced with a lack of medical staff. That is becoming an increasingly serious problem and we are always open and we invite nurses from Serbia to apply for a job at our clinic – Hafner says.

According to her, the biggest challenge in employing medical nurses from abroad is the knowledge of the German language.

– Austria is very restrictive and requires a certain level of familiarity with the language and that’s where it differs from other countries of the EU. As for the experience and knowledge that nurses have, it’s not a problem, because, if we’re talking staff from southeast Europe, it is at a very good level, and training within the hospital itself is available as well. The main barrier, that is, the biggest challenge, is the language – our interviewee says.

Following the treatment, patients from abroad also have control checks at WPK, and online consultations through WPK Online Healthcare Center are also possible.

– If patients from abroad have surgical procedures done at our hospital, they then also have control checks, depending on the doctor’s estimate. If we’re talking patients who need further care, we organize this in two ways. In the case our doctors have doctors that they have cooperated with in some country, concretely, in Serbia, and that they trust, they recommend further care for patients with those doctors. If that’s not the case, our doctors file clear medical documentation, which introduces doctors to the case and the state of the patient and gives further recommendations. There are also consultations through our Online Healthcare Center, which we launched during the pandemic and which has turned out to be a great success – Hafner says.

Considering the significant number of patients from abroad, WPK is one of the biggest hospitals in Austria which develop medical tourism. As they said, they have two international offices in Romania, and they have also developed a network of 150 tourism agencies that they cooperate with. They now seek partners in Serbia, but also other countries of the region.

– We are currently not cooperating with any agency from Serbia, but we are interested in finding potential partners. These can be clinics or tourism agencies which do medical tourism. They know the local market, and we have a hospital and top doctors, so we are always open for cooperation – Ema Hafner explains for eKapija.

WPK has a total of seven departments with a total of 145 beds. The hospital has three connected buildings, and they soon plan to expand their capacities.

– We have recently completed the acquisition of a facility which is located next to our existing clinics. It is a very important project for us, and close to EUR 50 million will be invested in the renovation and development of the facility. We hope that, in three years, we will have a fully functional new facility, thanks to which we will considerably increase our existing clinic capacities – Hafner says.

When asked whether they plan to open another clinic in Austria or in another country in Europe, CEO Walter EBM says that that kind of expansion is not part of their strategy.

– Our strategy is not to have more clinics, but to provide the best possible care to patients at the hospital we already have in Vienna. Our aim is to provide them with the best services, therapies and doctors and to have an equal approach to each case and patient. That cannot be done in several different locations. It is simpler and more efficient to bring patients to Vienna than to send a doctor to patients in several locations – he says.

Dragana Obradovic

Wiener Privatklinik Holding AG

Republički fond za zdravstveno osiguranje Beograd

Wiener Privatklinik

Walter Ebm

Ema Hafner

Christoph Zielinski

Walter Klepetko

WPK Central European Academy Cancer Center

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