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Vienna Emergency Medicine: Together for Optimal Emergency Care

1st Vienna Emergency Medicine Days on 6/7 October 2017
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From left: Klaus Markstaller, Herwig Wetzlinger, Markus Müller, Gabriela Kornek, Anton Laggner, and Harry Kopietz.

(Vienna, 6 Oct. 2017) Together for optimal emergency care in Vienna – this is the motto of the 1st Vienna Emergency Medical Days held on 6 and 7 October on the Campus of the Medical University. “Our aim is to provide the best possible preclinical emergency care for the people of Vienna,” says Klaus Markstaller, head of the Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine at the MedUni Vienna, at a press conference today on Friday. “We will succeed in doing so if all the institutions involved will perfectly cooperate with each other.” In addition to MedUni Vienna and the Vienna General hospital (AKH), the Vienna emergency concept also includes the Vienna Rescue Service, the Vienna Hospital Association, the Vienna Fire Brigade and the Vienna Police. The future of cooperation in preclinical emergency medicine and its challenges will be discussed at the 1st Vienna Emergency Medicine Days. 

One of the projects that have already been successfully implemented for optimal care in an emergency is that the same doctors have been taking care of the casualties and emergency patients for about a year now, both at the emergency site and in the clinic - from the emergency ambulance to further care in the hospital. "What's new is that the emergency interventions are provided directly by hospitals," explains Markstaller. For even better care and aftercare of the patients. Another successful project is the one that the association "PULS" has implemented together with the Vienna Police: "First Responder Polizei Wien".  In the course of this project, defibrillators were installed in police stations and mobile units in police cars, and there were also special training courses for executive officers in the fight against sudden cardiac death. Since the project was launched in 2013, police officers in Vienna have been able to successfully resuscitate in more than 350 cases with the aid of a Defibrillator - almost doubling the survival rate for cardiac arrest.

Further projects such as these are to follow in order to ensure and strengthen the quality of emergency care in Vienna - including close cooperation between emergency doctors, the WEGA special unit and the COBRA task force, in order to be well prepared for any crises. A practical part of the symposium demonstrates how this cooperation should and will work.

“Projects such as ‘First Responder Polizei Wien‘, which was initiated by the university, are not only implemented in practice, but are of course also  accompanied by scientists of our university. Within the MedUni Vienna, four university hospitals are involved: the Internal Medicine, the Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgery as well as Anaesthesia. If we put this cooperation with other institutions in Vienna on an even broader basis, we will be able to provide patients with the best possible emergency care with a scientifically supported, sustainable approach," says Markus Müller, Rector at MedUni Vienna.

“Efficient communication between pre-clinical and intra-clinical emergency physicians is essential, so that even before the arrival of the patient, important steps can be taken for targeted diagnosis and therapy according to the latest scientific standards. In this context, the Vienna Heart Attack and Stroke Network as well as the Vienna Resuscitation Model should be mentioned. With this network we offer our population an optimum of emergency care, which is accompanied by appropriate scientific programmes", adds Anton Laggner, Head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the MedUni Vienna.

“Optimal emergency care in Vienna is not only important to me as a politician, but also as a person. The City of Vienna and the association of aid organisations (‘K-Kreis’) have established a worldwide unique network around the topic of security and care for people in emergency situations. For the people of Vienna this means that they can count on fast, highly professional and top-organised aid at any time in an emergency. I am also particularly pleased that the PULS association, in cooperation with many organisations such as the police and the MedUni Vienna, has succeeded in increasing the survival rate in the event of sudden cardiac arrest from 10% to over 20% within a few years," says Harry Kopietz, President of the Vienna State Parliament.

“The concept of the emergency ambulances was developed by the Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine and gives the Vienna General Hospital the opportunity to manage patient flows according to need", says Herwig Wetzlinger, Director of the Vienna General Hospital.

Date: 1st Vienna Emergency Medicine Days – cooperation in preclinical emergency medicine
The 1st Vienna Emergency Medicine Days are held on 6 and 7 October 2017 in the auditorium centre of the MedUni Vienna (HS 3, Campus of the Medical University, Vienna General Hospital (AKH), Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna) in a cooperation of MedUni Vienna, the Vienna General Hospital, Vienna Rescue Service, the Vienna Hospital Association, the Vienna Fire Brigade and the Vienna Police. In the scope of the emergency refresher course there is also a cooperation with the WEGA special unit and the COBRA task force.

Participation is free of charge and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. The registration will be on site. All information can be found here: www.meduniwien.ac.at/notarzttage