What services does the chief physician provide?
Treatment by the chief physician is treatment by elective doctor. Private patients enjoy the privilege of being able to choose a doctor freely. It does not necessarily have to be the chief physician of a department who leads the treatment. Patients can also be treated by a senior physician who has the appropriate qualifications and expertise in the field of the disease. This also falls under the term head physician treatment.
In the case of head physician treatment, the treatment must be in the hands of the specialist, determined by the patient. The head physician should decide and perform the basic services of the therapy. That means:
- He examines the patient at the admission
- He controls the treatment progress at regular Visit
- He leads Operations and monitors the execution of the anesthesia.
Privately insured persons should have this confirmed in writing in advance by the hospital in a treatment contract.
The Agreement for a head physician treatment also includes senior specialists from other areas if these are necessary for the treatment, for example anesthesiology or cardiology.
It cannot be completely ruled out that the doctor who directs the treatment may have to be represented at some point. In this case, the patient must be informed about this in good time and be Consent for representation give. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in 2016 (Az. VI ZR 75/15). It was about a hand operation for which the patient had agreed to be treated by the chief physician. However, the surgery was carried out by the senior physician, for which the patient’s consent was lacking. The judges considered this to be illegal.
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