As of: February 3, 2024, 6:00 p.m
By: Andrea Beschorner
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Practice boss Stefan Hanfler loves his job – and still wants less bureaucracy.
© Lehmann
A profession that combines medical and sporting aspects, that can give people immediate relief and is also a calling for many: three ambitious physiotherapists report on their everyday lives.
Au/Hallertau
– Physiotherapist Marie Hagl knocks on the treatment room, waits a moment and enters the room.
A patient with chronic lung disease is now on her treatment plan: 60 minutes of respiratory therapy.
Your first question to him, how he is doing, is more than just a polite phrase.
Where are the complaints today?
Has there been a change since the last treatment?
All of this is important for a successful therapy session.
The patient visits the practice twice a week and says he has been coping with his illness much better since then.
The therapy is just as essential to maintaining his quality of life as the medication he takes every day.
“And that’s what makes this profession special: helping people directly,” says the therapist, who has never regretted choosing this profession.
One room away, a patient with a neurological disease is being treated.
The goal: maintain mobility and counteract failure symptoms.
Patients with an impairment of the central nervous system are usually long-term patients.
That means: The therapist – in this case Friederike Martin – and the patient have known each other for a long time.
Job with diversity and variety
The experienced therapist often sees a deterioration at first glance and then immediately knows where to start.
Before the woman found her way to the physiotherapy practice in Au, she had to complete a real medical marathon.
The symptoms got worse and worse, and a serious operation was even on the cards.
Since she has been treated here twice a week, her condition has been stable and the topic of surgery is off the table, at least for the moment.
“The gratitude of the patients is the best thing,” says Friederike Martin.
In addition, and she agrees with her colleague, the job offers diversity and variety.
Diverse treatment spectrum
This is also confirmed by the head of the practice, Stefan Hanfler.
The spectrum of activities is huge: “Here we treat small children as well as people of old age, injured athletes as well as patients who are referred to us from orthopedics, surgery, neurology or gynecology.”
Stefan Hanfler looks back on 20 years of professional experience.
He did his community service many years ago in a clinic on Lake Tegernsee, where he came into contact with the profession of physiotherapist for the first time and was immediately enthusiastic.
After graduating from high school, he remained true to his original dream and studied social pedagogy.
He struggles through three semesters before admitting that this is probably not his calling.
He remembers his time in the clinic, working with the physiotherapists - looks for an internship and finds his calling there.
For therapists Friederike Martin and Marie Hagl (from left), the gratitude of their patients is the best thing about their job.
But also the sporting aspect.
© Lehmann
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His enthusiasm for his work has not left him to this day, a good 20 years later.
Actively accompanying people on their path to health, seeing how they can cope with serious, chronic illnesses in the long term thanks to therapy, the gratitude for it - he wouldn't want to miss all of that.
And even though the shortage of skilled workers is affecting this industry and physiotherapists are urgently needed in many practices, Stefan Hanfler has never had any major problems finding employees.
Many have been working in his team for years, some mothers have taken time off to have babies and then happily returned.
Wish list: reduction in bureaucracy and more time for patients
Even though a lot has improved for the physiotherapist's job profile in recent years, there are some things that could be optimized, as practice manager Stefan Hanfler says.
At the top of his wish list is reducing bureaucracy.
It takes an enormous amount of effort until the prescription is “fit” for billing: each one has to be checked for errors, and if necessary, corrections or additions have to be made by the doctor - and all of this while observing many specified deadlines.
“If a small formal error occurs, it may be that we do not receive any money, even though we have provided the full service,” says Stefan Hanfler.
More time for the patients: In fact, a therapist has 20 minutes for one therapy session of a physiotherapy prescription.
This includes preliminary consultation, examination, treatment and documentation.
A lot of this happens beyond 20 minutes and is therefore essentially free of charge.
“It's not possible any other way at the moment, otherwise the patient will be left behind.” That's why he would like half an hour per treatment unit and patient.
The therapist is skeptical about the idea of academicizing the profession in general.
At the moment there are model courses.
“But it would be important for everyone to be able to freely decide how they would like to learn the profession,” says Hanfler, because otherwise a higher level of education – now a secondary school leaving certificate, then a high school diploma – would be necessary and then fewer school graduates would take up the profession.
The reason for this is certainly that the boss here knows both sides.
"I started in this practice a good 20 years ago as a newly trained physiotherapist, ten years ago I joined as a partner and took over the practice in 2018." That's why he knows about the needs of the employees and knows what is essential to be a professional Employees feel comfortable.
Work should still be fun even at the end of a strenuous day.
And on the one hand, the duty roster must be designed in such a way that the therapists do not rush from cubicle to cubicle and there is no time in between to take a sip.
On the other hand, however, economic viability must be maintained.
Improved framework conditions
Stefan Hanfler manages this balancing act in his practice, he also makes sure that everyone can take their lunch break, and there are always joint activities outside of everyday work throughout the year: from barbecues to dinner to Christmas parties.
What plays in his and his team's favor are the conditions, which have continued to improve in recent years.
On the one hand, there is the better remuneration from the health insurance companies, “by a total of around 40 percent in the last five or six years” - which is of course also reflected in the salaries of the employees.
“But you have to put that in perspective,” adds Stefan Hanfler.
“We really came from an underground place and had a lot of catching up to do.”
However, it is now the case that the earnings are comparable to other training occupations.
Also, because training allowances are now paid at many state schools, at least school fees are no longer due at most private schools.
“A few years ago you still had to pay for school - which is why anyone who didn't get support from their parents couldn't learn the job.” Since these improvements, the situation on the job market is no longer quite as tense.
Would he recommend the profession to young people?
“With all the hurdles that have been eliminated in recent years, I can answer that with a clear yes,” says Stefan Hanfler.
For him it remained his calling.
And he likes to pass on this enthusiasm to his team and patients every day.