Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Exploring the barriers to prehabilitation integration in Austrian healthcare: a qualitative analysis
Authors' conclusion
These exploratory findings reveal conceptual, systemic, and cultural barriers to prehabilitation in Austria. The simultaneous absence of integrated financing, professional society advocacy, and coordinated governance may explain Austria's particularly limited uptake compared to that in the UK and the Netherlands. These findings are hypothesis-generating and require validation through larger-scale qualitative studies, quantitative surveys, and pilot implementation trials that include patient perspectives and economic modelling.
Study context
- Population
- Stakeholders in Austrian healthcare representing anaesthesiology, surgery, outpatient cardiology, clinical psychology, physiotherapy, and health insurance administrationpurposively sampled stakeholders interviewed between February and March 2024 · anaesthesiology 2 · surgery 2 · outpatient cardiology 1 · clinical psychology 1 · physiotherapy 1 · health insurance administration 1
- Participants
- eight participants
Methodological detailspurposively sampled, descriptive thematic content analysis, mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research
- Purposively sampled
- Descriptive thematic content analysis
- Mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
- Six themes emerged: attitudes towards prehabilitation, work environment, healthcare system structure, economic factors, cultural factors, and politics, evidence, and guidelines
Further findings
Recognition and knowledge of prehabilitation
- Unanimous recognition of clinical value; knowledge of prehabilitation varied widely
Critical barriers
- Structural and financial separation between inpatient and outpatient sectors, absence of reimbursement mechanisms, workforce shortages, organisational inertia, and limited advocacy by professional societies
Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research mapping
- Barriers identified across all five domains; outer setting barriers (particularly fragmented financing and the absence of national guidelines) the most prominent
Original publication
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