The Rehabilitation Clinic Enns, a health care facility operated jointly by the international health care provider VAMED AG, the Oberösterreichischen Gesundheit und Spitals AG (gespag), and the Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich (RLB OÖ) began taking on patients on a limited basis at the beginning of June.

On Wednesday July 8, 2015, Provincial Governor Dr. Josef Pühringer, Deputy Governor Franz Hiesl, Dr. Ernst Wastler, Chairman of the Executive Board of VAMED, Dr. Heinrich Schaller, Chairman of the Executive Board of RLB OÖ, and Mag. Karl Lehner, MBA, Executive Director of gespag, officially opened the clinic. The new health facility can provide treatment for up to 126 patients. Sixty beds each are available in the departments neurology and pneumology.
Additionally there are six long-term artificial respiration beds.  

The Rehabilitation Clinic Enns has a therapeutic area of 1,000 m² containing state-of-the art diagnostic and therapeutic facilities and devices, as well as a therapy garden with an area of 5,300 m². The total investment volume amounted to approximately 20 million euros.  About 85 percent of the commissions were awarded to regional companies. At the new rehabilitation facility 115 long-term work places are being created for highly qualified medical personnel.

Provincial Governor Dr. Josef Pühringer emphasizes:
“The new Rehabilitation Clinic Enns will further enhance Upper Austria as a healthcare location and will be an essential component in the overall healthcare provisions of our Federal Province. As a result, 115 highly qualified work places will also be secured, an important stimulus for the whole region created, and the range of medicinal services improved. In this way, we will continue to implement our approach of offering highly qualified care in all regions of the federal province and simultaneously promoting specialization.”

Personnel Officer and Deputy Provincial Governor Franz Hiesl is convinced:
“Up to the present, especially in the area of neurological rehabilitation, Austrian patients would often have to seek treatment in neighboring countries, as not enough places were available here. We are able to greatly alleviate this shortage with the new services in Enns.”
He then underscored the advantages for the former gespag employees:
“We have guaranteed all employees a job. The 200 employees either took up work in other gespag hospitals or they took advantage of the chance to strengthen the Rehabilitation Clinic Enns with their expertise. In addition, a ward with long-term artificial respiration beds in Schloss Haus and was integrated into the Rehabilitation Clinic Enns and was thus upgraded. I am convinced that due to this solution we have created a win-win situation both for the Upper Austrian population and for employees.”      

Dr. Ernst Wastler, Chairman of the Executive Board of VAMED emphasizes:
“By the construction of the Rehabilitation Clinic Enns, we have created additional capacity open to all patients in pneumologic and neurologic rehabilitation. VAMED has thus strengthened its partnership with the Federal Province of Upper Austria and also gespag and once again has successfully demonstrated its comprehensive know-how in planning, constructing, and operating health care facilities. On a worldwide basis VAMED has implemented 710 health care projects in 77 countries.”  
Overall VAMED operates 16 rehabilitation facilities, twelve in Austria, two in the Czech Republic, and two in Switzerland.

Dr. Heinrich Schaller, Executive Director of Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich:
“The Raiffeisenlandesbank OÖ has been committed to financing healthcare facilities in all areas: with wellness facilities in the area of prevention, with the construction of hospitals, for example, the Emergency Hospital Linz, the Provincial Women’s and Children’s Hospital, hospitals in Vöcklabruck and Steyr, as well as the Rehabilitation Center Gmundnerberg and now also in the area of rehabilitation in Enns. Overall, the Raiffeisenlandesbank OÖ has provided funding including EU funds in the health care area in the amount of 508 million euros.” 

“With our investment in the Rehabilitation Clinic Enns, as the largest Upper Austrian hospital operator, we are expanding the healthcare chain for our patients. As was already the case with the Neurological Therapy Center Gmundnerberg, in which we also participated as VAMED’s partner, we have succeeded in taking another decisive step in providing regional health care,” states Mag. Karl Lehner, MBA, Spokesperson for the Board of gespag.

Modern Rehabilitation and Patient-Centered Architecture 

The new Rehabilitation Clinic Enns satisfies all our patients’ demands necessary for state-of-the art rehabilitation and is one of the most modern rehabilitation clinics in Austria, not only from an architectural but also from medicinal and therapeutic points of view.  With a great deal of attention to detail, VAMED has created an atmosphere in which patients feel completely at ease.  

For example, to enhance patients’ well-being even in the halls on the way to treatments, there are various functional, decorative elements on each level that invite patients to relax and “touch and feel” – an important approach to therapy for both neurological and pneumological patients.  

Images of spring that brighten the mood have been placed on the ceiling for patients lying on long-term artificial respiration beds, whose gaze is directed upward.

Rehabilitation Approaches in Neurology 

Strokes and craniocerebral trauma are among the frequent causes for patients’ need to relearn movement processes in neurological rehabilitation. The goal of this rehabilitation is to remedy neurological restrictions to allow the patients to have a high degree of independent living. Patients arriving from hospital or from their homes undergo detailed diagnostics and then receive an individual rehabilitation plan. Rehabilitation measures range from speech therapy to ergotherapy and physiotherapy, neuropsychology and dietology.

The neurologic range of treatments of the new Rehabilitation Clinic Enns specifically includes:

• Patients after a stroke in phases C and D
• Neuromuscular diseases, especially with breathing disorders
• Benign brain tumors with higher-brain performance disorders
• Morbus Parkinson and similar neurodegenerative diseases with disorders of balance, gait and also swallowing and speech disorders
• Multiple Sclerosis and other inflammatory diseases
• Discus prolapse with compression of the myelon or radicular dysfunction symptoms
• Distinct polyneuropathy with gait disorders
• Residual neurologic symptoms after neurosurgical operations
• Aftereffects of brain and spinal cord or peripheral nervous system injuries

Scope of Work and Rehabilitation Plan in Pneumology

As is the case in neurology, the number of respiratory diseases has increased dramatically in the past decades.  According to the expert association for pneumology, every fifth adult in Austria suffers from the pulmonary disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).  In rehabilitation, patients are offered an individual therapeutic plan geared to the individual patient’s clinical picture including respiratory physiotherapy, strength and endurance training, patient training, smoking cessation, and diet advice.  Psychological counseling and ergotherapy supplement the therapeutic range of services.  The overall pneumologic scope of services of the Rehabilitation Clinic Enns includes the following disorders:

• Patients with chronic respiratory ailments (COPD II – IV)
• Chronic bronchial asthma 
• Chronic pulmonary disease with respiratory insufficiency
• Pre- and post-treatment of patients after lung surgery
• Training for long-term oxygen treatment and mechanical breathing aids for chronic respiratory musculature failure
 

For further information:

Michael Frostel, MSc
Spokesperson of Provincial Governor  Dr. Josef Pühringer
Tel.: +43 732 7720 11407
E-Mail: michael.frostel@ooe.gv.at

Mag. Markus Langthaler
Spokesperson Office of Deputy Provincial Governor  Franz Hiesl
Tel.: +43 732 7720 12155, mobil: +43 664 / 600 72 12155

Mag.a Jutta Oberweger
Spokesperson OÖ. Gesundheits- und Spitals-AG (gespag)
Tel.: 05 055460-20400, mobil: 0664 / 5123815
E-Mail: jutta.oberweger@gespag.at

Public Relations und Medienservice Raiffeisenlandesbank OÖ AG
Tel.: +43 732 / 6596 – 22009
mobil: +43 676 / 8141 2009
E-Mail: wetzelsberger@rlbooe.at