ArticleSchmerz (Berlin, Germany)2015
[Pain care in Austrian health care centers: Questionnaire study on the current status of Austrian pain clinics].
Article in Schmerz (Berlin, Germany), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- [Status survey of Austrian pain clinics 2023 : Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pain management services].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- [Pain relief during and after surgical procedures : Results of an Austria-wide patient survey on postoperative pain and perioperative pain management].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2018Article
- [Quality assurance of pain care in Austria : Classification of management facilities].Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2017Review
- [Interdisciplinary position paper "Perioperative pain management"].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPain clinics provide interdisciplinary therapy to treat chronic pain patients and to increase the return-to-work rate. In recent years and due to increased economic pressure in health care, a change in the management of pain in Austrian health care centers has been observed. For the analysis of the current situation, two surveys addressing all Austrian pain clinics were performed. MATERIALS AND
methodsIn total, 133 heads of Austrian Anesthesia Departments were interviewed online and personally. The data from the first interview were confirmed by an additional telephone survey that was performed by one anesthetist per Austrian state (n = 9).
resultsCurrently, 44 Austrian pain clinics are active. During the last 5 years, 9 pain clinics closed. Adding the current active pain clinics together, they represent a total of 17.5 full-time-operated clinics. The most common reasons for closing the pain clinics were lack of personnel (47%), lack of time resources (26%), lack of space resources (11%), and financial difficulties (11%). A reduction of >50% of operating hours during the last 3 years was reported by 9 hospitals. The reasons for not running a pain clinic were lack of personnel (36%), lack of time (25%) and department too small (16%). Estimates between actual and required clinics indicate that 49.5 full-time-operating pain clinics are lacking in Austria, resulting in 74% of the Austrian chronic pain patients not receiving interdisciplinary pain management.
conclusionOur survey confirmed the closure of 9 pain clinics during the last 5 years due to lack of personnel and time. Pain clinics appear to provide the simplest economic saving potential. This development is a major concern. Although running a pain clinic seems to be expensive at the first sight, it reduces pain, sick leave, complications, and potential legal issues against health care centers, while simultaneously increasing the hospital's competitiveness. Our results show that 74% of Austrian chronic pain patients do not have access to an interdisciplinary pain clinic. Because of plans to further economize resources, Austria may lose its ability to provide state-of-the-art pain therapy and management.
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