History

After Worl War I, the “Evangelischer Verein für Innere Mission” (Protestant Home Mission Society) sent a deaconess to Schladming to care for the people in a nursing home. During World War II, a military hospital was established, and after the war it developed into a provisional hospital Operation in Coburgstraße with 45 beds. In 1945 the Home Mission Society in Styria became part of the Upper Austrian society. Thus the hospital operation in Schladming became a deaconess hospital under the patronage of the Protestant Deaconry of Gallneukirchen.

From 1958 to 1960 the hospital was rebuilt by the architect Andreas Herdey from Graz. The new facility was dedicated on 26 June 1960. The deaconess hospital focused predominately on surgery and had an obstetrics ward as well. In 1961 it had 71 officially approved beds.

At the beginning of the 1970s, several problems came to light, such as a shortage of staff due to the retirement of deaconesses and lack of space due to large increases in services offered and the addition of new functions. In order to at least resolve the glaring lack of space, planning began on the construction of a new addition which in turn was carried out from 1973 to 1975 by the architectural firm Herdey. In addition to the Medical Director, in 1971 we were able to add an anaesthesiologist to our staff and in 1975 a specialised surgeon.

By decision of the Styrian provincial government, the hospital was granted public status on 29 June 1981, so that from then on it could bear the name Diakonissen-Krankenhaus Schladming as a general public hospital.

The 70s and 80s produced a large increase in services offered and an increase in the number of beds to the maximum capacity of 130. On 1 February 1989 the Department of Internal Medicine and the Institute for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care were opened. In order to respond to the professional expansion of the range of services offered, the hospital was rebuilt, refurbished and, above all, equipped with modern medical technology in 1988/89.

In 2002, the hospital set the course for specialisation in general and trauma surgery within the Surgical Department by establishing a Department of Trauma Surgery.

Since the beginning of the 90s, efforts have been made to rebuild the Diakonissen-Krankenhaus Schladming. On 18 October 2004, construction began in the Schladminger district of Maistatt. The new facility was built under a public-private partnership (PPP) model by a construction company established separately for this purpose, the “DKV”. The DKV was composed of the Protestant Deaconry of Gallneukirchen as building owner and legal entity, the Styrian Hospital Corporation, and the Vamed company. The Munich architectural firm Nickl&Partner was responsible for the architecture. After exactly 25 months, the new Diakonissen-Krankenhaus Schladming was opened to the public on 17 November 2006 as the patients were moved from the old location to the new facility in Salzburger Strasse.

The opening ceremony and blessing took place on 28 June 2007.