The private hospital Wiener Privatklinik treated more than 300 Romanian patients in the first quarter of this year. Last year, more than 1,200 Romanians visited the Austrian hospital. The clinic’s management plans to open its third Romanian branch in Cluj this year as part of its expansion strategy in Central and Eastern Europe.
Wiener Privatklinik (WPK), one of the largest private hospitals in Austria, listed in 2021 and 2022 in the World’s Best Hospitals rankings, recorded an increase of over 32% in the number of Romanian patients in the first 3 months of this year compared to the same period last year, with around 300 Romanians being treated between January and March 2022. Currently, Romanians are the leading nationality of international patients at WPK, representing a 35% share.
The result comes as a result of the constant development of the support services offered on the Romanian market, but also of the war context, which led to a reduction of Russian patients, who in the past occupied a significant share of foreign patients.
Welcoming Romanian patients
This year, Wiener Privatklinik plans to open its third office in Romania, in Cluj, as part of its expansion strategy in Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, as part of the same strategy, the hospital has started promoting and developing its services in Bulgaria.
Wiener Privatklinik is the private hospital with the highest international patient referral rate in the region. Every year, the WPK hospital registers more than 12,000 admissions, and about 40% of these are for international patients from more than 20 countries, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe.
The most common pathologies treated by Romanians in Vienna
About 60% of Romanian patients have come to WPK for cancer treatments, including cancer surgery, available at the WPK Cancer European Academy Cancer Center, the most complex and renowned private cancer diagnostic and treatment centre in Central and Eastern Europe. The most common oncological pathologies treated during this period were breast and lung cancer, the main forms of cancer among women and men respectively, followed by colon cancer, ENT, pancreatic and prostate tumours.
At the same time, Romanian patients underwent complex orthopaedic-trauma, cardiovascular, peripheral nerve and reconstructive surgery. At WPK, they benefited from the expertise of internationally renowned surgeons and the latest therapeutic approaches and surgical techniques. Other services requested were second opinion consultations regarding the diagnosis received or the treatment plan, as well as personalised medical check-up packages.
Online medical consultations
In addition to patients who have travelled to Vienna for treatment, Romanian patients also seek online medical consultations with Austrian experts in the WPK Online Healthcare Center virtual clinic. The most requested medical consultations in the first 3 months of the year were oncology, second opinion radiology, internal medicine, cardiology, rheumatology, orthopaedics, endocrinology, dermatology, gastroenterology, psychiatry and ENT.
“If 6 years ago, when we launched our first office in Romania, the share of Romanian patients was about 10% of all international patients, since then it has increased significantly. They benefit from Romanian-speaking case managers, are advised in choosing the right doctor for their problem, and travel to Vienna is also facilitated. This makes the whole process of accessing our medical services much easier and faster”, says Ema Hafner, Head of Marketing and International Patients at Wiener Privatklinik.
Wiener Privatklinik has been listed for the second year in a row in the 2022 Best Hospitals in the World ranking by the prestigious American publication Newsweek – together with the German market research company Statista. The main criteria taken into account were recommendations by healthcare professionals, patient surveys, quality management and hospital KPIs.
The hospital offers medical services in more than 30 specialties and has 10 competence centres in: oncology, sports medicine and traumatology, cardiovascular medicine, orthopaedics, peripheral nerve surgery, general surgery, bone tumour surgery, gastroenterology and hepatology, interventional radiology and microtherapy.
In the hospital’s competence centres, patients have access to more than 400 doctors with exceptional expertise, who take an interdisciplinary approach to each medical case. Many of these experts are active in both clinical practice and scientific research, which keeps them highly competitive internationally. Last year, 9 WPK collaborating physicians were ranked in the top 10% of the world’s scientists in a ranking by Stanford University.
Romanian patients can benefit from full assistance in travelling to the hospital in Vienna or accessing an online consultation through WPK’s 2 representative offices in Bucharest and Timisoara.
About Wiener Privatklinik
Wiener Privatklinik (WPK), founded in 1871 and based in Vienna, is one of the largest private hospitals in Austria and listed in the World’s Best Hospitals ranking in 2021 and 2022. The hospital covers a range of more than 30 medical specialties, with 10 competence centers, 145 beds, a surgery department with 4 operating rooms. Advanced imaging services in the Radiology Centre with PET-CT and nuclear medicine are an additional entity for WPK. The only private radiotherapy centre in Austria was established in WPK in 2020. More than 400 renowned Austrian experts from the most diverse specialties are active at the Wiener Privatklinik, using the most innovative diagnostic methods and state-of-the-art treatments.
