In 1893, at the invitation of the Austro-Hungarian government, she arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina where for the next almost two decades worked in the responsible role of the provincial chief physician for the female part of the population, especially among the local Muslim women.

Bohuslava Josefa Kecková was born on 18 March 1854 in village Bukol (now a part of Vojkovice) in Bohemia, Austrian Empire to Johanna "Jana" (née Kubíčková) and Adolf Kecka.

During her childhood, the farm was sold and the family moved to Karlín, then eastern suburb of Prague, where her father had a successful construction and building firm.

She graduated on 4 August 1880, the first woman of Czech heritage to earn the title of doctor[2] with a thesis O řezu průdušnice při nádorech na krku (The tracheal section of the throat and neck).

Though she had been left an inheritance by her father for opening a practice, she tried for two years, using pressure from influential friends and women's groups to register on the list of doctors, but was unable to do so.

Intervention by a professor at the Medical Faculty in Prague who sent her request to the Ministry of Culture and Teaching was also ignored,[2] with claims that her certification had been received abroad and not in Austria-Hungary.

[2][7] Since working in her chosen field was denied unless she moved outside the country, Kecková returned to school, taking courses in gynecology and midwifery at the medical faculty of the University of Vienna.

[4] Kecková combined treatment with health education and wrote articles which she sent back to Bohemia describing her medical rounds, which she made with two assistants and a driver, by rail, horse and finally walking to her patients.

[5] Her articles appeared in Czech newspapers like Ženské listy ("Women's Papers") and Lada on such topics as abusive drinking, malnutrition and tuberculosis from 1897 to 1910.