Geriatrische Gesundheitszentren der Stadt Graz

Perhaps our most essential key achievement is our graduated care structure. This means that we provide treatment and care that covers almost all of the healthcare needs of elderly people. Over the past 15 years, we have expanded our portfolio from 2 to nearly 20 services. Thanks to this extensive service portfolio, as our patients’ healthcare...

Perhaps our most essential key achievement is our graduated care structure. This means that we provide treatment and care that covers almost all of the healthcare needs of elderly people. Over the past 15 years, we have expanded our portfolio from 2 to nearly 20 services. Thanks to this extensive service portfolio, as our patients’ healthcare needs evolve with age, we are able to adapt our services to suit these needs and continue to provide the optimum care and treatment, often by seamlessly transferring them from one service or mode of supported living to another.

In developing our service portfolio, we use the BCG matrix to analyse existing services. When developing new services, our goal is always to fullfill existing needs in healthcare. To this end, we conduct research on the needs of elderly patients and work together with our in-house experts, front-line caregivers and the customers themselves to identify needs, devise innovative solutions, and then implement and test these new concepts. Working with researchers from our Albert Schweitzer Institute, we gain scientific evidence via testing and pilot programmes. This, in turn, helps us to secure long-term financing for our new services, all of which are devised with a careful eye towards sustainability.

In line with our slogan, “With us, people are in the best of hands”, our patients’ needs and interests are the focus of all of our efforts. To avoid the doctor-centred “specialist” approach that sometime characterises healthcare, we assemble interdisciplinary teams, which work together with the patients or residents, as well as their families or...

In line with our slogan, “With us, people are in the best of hands”, our patients’ needs and interests are the focus of all of our efforts. To avoid the doctor-centred “specialist” approach that sometime characterises healthcare, we assemble interdisciplinary teams, which work together with the patients or residents, as well as their families or other non-professional caregivers where appropriate, to define treatment goals and develop individualised care and treatment plans. The team then continually monitors and adapts this plan as the treatment progresses, to ensure its success.

Furthermore, we strive to ensure the best point of care; that is, all patients and residences are guided to the best form of care or living arrangement for their particular needs. Of course, within these different services, we also continuously strive to maintain the highest level of quality. This involves carefully planned measures, such as deploying patient-centred nursing approaches (e.g., primary nursing in the clinical area) and building effective forms of communication between all relevant parties (e.g. patients or residents and their families, specialists, front-line caregivers) to ensure rapid response to any developing needs.

As a service provider, we recognise that our most important resource is our staff. Without highly trained and motivated employees, we cannot hope to achieve our goal of providing the best possible healthcare for our customers. Of course, the complex and dynamic nature of the field of healthcare demands that we continuously adapt our care...

As a service provider, we recognise that our most important resource is our staff. Without highly trained and motivated employees, we cannot hope to achieve our goal of providing the best possible healthcare for our customers. Of course, the complex and dynamic nature of the field of healthcare demands that we continuously adapt our care services to the demands of society and the constantly changing health and social systems, which also requires a forward-looking, strategically driven human resources planning.

In order to ensure that we can attract and retain the best possible employees, we have developed our “life-phase-oriented employee development concept”. This involves a commitment to workplace health management, providing opportunities for further training and education, designing flexible positions to help accommodate the demands our employees face when starting families, and finding appropriate alternative positions for our employees who may become unable to perform some of the more physically strenuous duties of healthcare as they grow older. To monitor our progress in this crucial area, we converted our employee satisfaction survey to the well-known “Great Place to Work” survey in 2016, thereby becoming one of very few healthcare providers in Europe to adopt this valuable tool.

Drawing on our many years of experience, in 2012 we embarked on a plan to establish what we call “fourth-generation nursing homes”. These nursing homes consist of small living units for 12-15 residents, which feature mostly single-bed rooms, private spaces for quiet time, and a central living zone for shared living, which is supervised by a...

Drawing on our many years of experience, in 2012 we embarked on a plan to establish what we call “fourth-generation nursing homes”. These nursing homes consist of small living units for 12-15 residents, which feature mostly single-bed rooms, private spaces for quiet time, and a central living zone for shared living, which is supervised by a daily manager. This project began with the renovation and expansion of the Aigner-Rollet nursing home, and then continued with the construction of two new nursing homes (Peter Rosegger and Erika Horn nursing homes) in the ensuing two years. This has involved an infrastructure investment of more than € 30 million, and knowledge gained from each individual project has been applied to optimise subsequent construction and renovation projects.

One key success factor in this context has been the inclusion of employees, residents and external experts in the conception and implementation phases of the nursing home development. Throughout the projects, representatives from the various professional groups were able to contribute their expertise as members of the project team. This ensured that the buildings were designed in the best possible way to create an optimal living environment for our residents and to support the work flows of our employees, thereby guaranteeing the best possible care. Finally, it is important to mention that all of our new nursing homes are Green Building approved, which shows the high ecological standards of our buildings.