Parents of children with a complex medical condition face significant challenges in their daily lives. The relief is all the greater when they do not have to attend many individual appointments for the necessary medical consultations and treatments and have only one contact person for their questions. In 2013, the UKBB therefore introduced a new interdisciplinary consultation hour. This is aimed at patients suffering from chromosomal disease (e.g. trisomy 21), severe malformation syndromes, complicated orthopedic problems or other complex diseases.
Since the summer of 2013, this interdisciplinary consultation has been held once a month at the UKBB Polyclinic. The children and adolescents concerned are referred internally and by pediatricians in private practice. The specialists involved in the UKBB are already notified about two months in advance and reserve the necessary time for the corresponding appointments. The consultation team can include all specialists and also other professional groups (e.g. physiotherapy or social counseling). Currently, neurology, neuroorthopedics, neurosurgery, nephrology, and urology are most commonly involved. Other specialists are called in as needed.
One appointment – everything from one source
Up to four patients are invited each morning and each goes through the special examinations necessary for them. Towards the end of the morning, all the professionals involved meet, discuss the results of the examination, jointly define a treatment strategy and decide who will coordinate the next steps and talk to the parents. Afterwards, this contact person explains the results, the treatment approaches recommended by the team and the further procedure to the family and remains the contact person for all concerns of the child and the parents in the future. After this initial consultation, the patient is called out at defined intervals and is continuously accompanied and cared for by the same team.
Networking is central in the treatment of complex conditions
The great advantage of this new consultation is based on the fact that all specialists responsible for a patient are in close contact and thus have the same level of knowledge. This ensures that even in the case of complex diseases, further procedures and treatment recommendations are always discussed and coordinated on an interdisciplinary basis. For the families concerned, the new consultation is not only a great time-saver, but also a moment in which important questions about various complaints are answered at the same time. Time-consuming and nerve-racking “appointment hopping” from specialist to specialist is no longer necessary.
Complete range of consultation hours offered by the UKBB at www.ukbb.ch (under the heading Referring Physicians/Consultations)
HAUSARZT PRAXIS 2014; 9(11): 61-62
