Title: Scope and role of strategic technology management in Austrian hospitals: a decade later

Authors: Marion S. Rauner, Kurt Heidenberger, Dina Hermescec, Alexandra Mokic, Martin Zsifkovits

Addresses: Department of Innovation and Technology Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Innovation and Technology Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria

Abstract: In the last decade, major reforms in healthcare finance and rapid advances in medicine brought about noticeable changes in the management of medical technology for many countries. To contribute an updated Austrian perspective, we again explored the scope as well as the current and potential future role of strategic technology management in hospitals of Vienna and related our findings to previous studies. In particular, we once more investigated issues of terminology, financial resource allocation, investment plans, and decision-making from a policy perspective and this time under special consideration of the performance-oriented hospital reimbursement system introduced in 1997. We found that strategic technology management gained importance in which could be clearly seen by improvement of technology assessment, purchase, evaluation, and monitoring. For example, nearly all technology types played a key role in medical decision-making. The share of key technologies generally rose. Investments in technology types and medical specialisation areas were mostly planned and performed in accordance to the reimbursement system. Medical technology decision-making was shifted for many technology types from top level to the respective departments and users.

Keywords: strategic technology management; hospitals; performance-oriented reimbursement systems; Austria; healthcare technology; medical technology; financial resource allocation; investment planning; medical decision making; public policy; strategic management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2011.040478

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2011 Vol.12 No.3/4, pp.250 - 279

Published online: 28 Mar 2015 *

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