Primary Health Care in Austria - Tu Felix Austria nube - Concept for networking in the primary care of Upper Austria

Abstract

The primary health care in rural areas in Austria is currently determined by challenges such as ageing of the population, the shift towards chronic and age-related illnesses, the specialist medical and hospital-related education and training of physicians' as well growing widespread difficulty of staffing doctor's office. The objective is to realize ageneral practitioner centered and team-oriented primary health care (PHC) approach by establishing networked primary health care in rural areas of Austria. Using literature research, online survey, expert interviews and expert workshops, we identified different challenges in terms of primary health care in rural areas. Further, current resources and capacities of primary health care in rural areas were identified using the example of the district of Rohrbach. Twelve design dimensions and 51relevant measurement indicators of aPHC network were delineated and described. Based on this, 12design approaches of PHC concept for the GP-centered and team-oriented primary health care in rural areas have been developed.