THE MEDICAL TEAM AND YOUR MEDICAL CARE
The medical team
Since 1994, the department of oncologic surgery has been headed by Dr med. Herwart Müller. His medical staff consists of a senior physician, five junior doctors as well as one house officer.
We would like to introduce ourselves with a description of our duties and activities.
The senior consultant
The areas of responsibility of our senior consultant can be divided into his clinical work on the one hand and into scientific activity on the other hand. Both fields are closely linked.
His medical and especially surgical activities are in the fore of his clinical tasks.
At the beginning of the treatment he develops a "made-to-measure" therapy plan for all patients and carries out difficult examinations or interventions himself. All therapeutic and diagnostic measures that may be necessary during treatment are discussed and agreed with him. As a matter of routine, he is informed twice a day about your condition. Critically diseased and newly operated patients are under his constant personal control.
Of course, as senior consultant he has an enormous amount of administrative work to do. He is working in different comprehensive hospital committees. Last but not least he is responsible for the education of his house officers and for further education of his junior doctors as specialists.
Dr Müller is specialist in visceral surgery and member of the "Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie" (German Society of Surgery) as well as of the "Europäischen Gesellschaft für internistische Onkologie" (European Society of Medical Oncology).
By his extensive special knowledge and scientific dissertations - recorded in more than 150 publications and 300 national and international lectures - he is directly involved in the development of standards of treatment in the field of growth surgery.
He attends all important national and international conferences concerning his field in order to integrate all new discoveries into his treatment programme.
Every morning at about 7.15 a.m., the senior consultant does his rounds alternately on the two wards. He is then accompanied by his senior physician and the respective ward doctor. In case you do not always understand all the medical information we are exchanging we kindly ask you to request your doctors immediately or later.
In absence of the senior consultant, the rounds are done by the senior physician.
The senior physician
Our senior physician is locum of the senior consultant and visceral surgeon as well with many years of experience. This enables and authorises him to order and to carry out all interventions. His clinical activity is completed by his own scientific dissertations. He advises and looks after the junior doctors in all important questions and decisions. In addition, he takes on organisational tasks.
The major part of his working hours you will find the senior physician in the working areas and in the operating room. On principle, he assists the junior doctors at all operations and at other more difficult diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Assistance in this context means that he is in charge of the intervention and he can take it over at any time. Complex interventions are either carried out by the senior consultant or by him.
The junior doctors
The junior doctors take over your medical care at the wards. Apart from all therapeutic tasks at the sickbed, medical care includes an enormous amount of "hidden" works, such as the graph round, communication with the nursing staff or the quite time-consuming documentary reports and administrative work.
At the same time, your doctors work at the intensive care unit and are entrusted with the execution of examinations and the assistance of operations.
Highly developed teamwork between the junior doctors and flexibility during the day guarantee that both fields of responsibility can be linked although they are locally apart.
The house officers
At present, we have one house officer who works in the working areas and at the wards under guidance and supervision of experienced colleagues.
The medical teamwork
Importance of good co-operation certainly shows itself most obviously during operation where every movement must be exactly right. It is not commonly known that the medical profession is always acting as a team, also outside the operating room. There is good communication about your treatment programme.
For this information transfer, the early and late meetings play an important role. They take place every working day in the morning from 6.45 to 7.00 a.m. and in the afternon from 3.15 to 4.00 p.m.
During these meetings, the senior doctors are informed about the course of treatment of all patients. Exceptional features are talked over, especially in view of the following night. Decisions are made about diagnostic and therapeutic measures, results from the individual working areas are presented and roentgenograms are examined and decided about. The day is arranged, operation plans are updated - if necessary - and many more things are done.
Every day after the early meeting, there is the joint round on the intensive care unit at about 7.00 a.m. After that, as a rule between 7.15 and 8.00 a.m., the round on the normal wards takes place.
Afterwards, the doctors start their work in the working areas or in the operating room. Depending on the difficulty of the interventions and the number of patients planned, they work until late in the afternoon.
As a matter of principle, at least one doctor is available for the wards during this time.
Your medical care at night and on weekends
On weekdays from 4.00 p.m. on, the department is looked after by the doctor on duty in co-operation with the anaesthetist.
On weekends, the senior physician or senior consultant does his round in the hospital and as background duty takes over your medical care together with the doctor on duty.