The Salzburg State Audit Office published its audit report on the Tauern Clinic today. In the years 2016 to 2020 examined, a steady reduction in the range of services in the Mittersill hospital was determined.
In 2015 the hospitals in Zell am See and Mittersill merged under the umbrella of Tauernkliniken GmbH. The range of services should be retained in Mittersill in the existing form, which is also stated in a regulation. “That’s why we were irritated when we found a different situation on site,” says the director of the Salzburg State Audit Office, Ludwig F. Hillinger. The area of internal medicine was converted from a full operation into a weekly clinic (Monday to Friday). The Court of Auditors was able to determine that patients who required medical monitoring were increasingly being brought to Zell am See at the weekend. In 2003, the municipality of Zell am See acquired the Ritzensee private clinic. Due to space problems, a contract was drawn up that a certain number of patients could be accommodated there. In the controlled period, however, many more people than would have been contractually permitted were transferred to the private clinic. Sometimes even if the hospitals in Zell am See and Mittersill had still had space. Hillinger: “We are of the opinion that it is not the task of a public hospital like the Tauernklinikum to ensure that a private sanatorium is used to capacity.” This doctor was allowed to operate on patients from the affiliated area of the Zell am See hospital on a fee basis in the Ritzensee private clinic. Particularly precarious: Many of these operations were actually only permitted in the Zell am See hospital due to the lack of an intensive care and monitoring unit. In addition, the Tauernklinikum acted as a “personnel leasing company” and hired out employees to the Ritzensee private clinic. “The costs charged to the Ritzensee private clinic did not correspond to the actual costs,” says Hillinger.
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