Chief physician Prof. Dr. Dieter Köhler d.koehler@noSpam.fkkg.de	Senior physician Dr. Thomas Barchfeld t.barchfeld@noSpam.fkkg.de

Secretariat: Fon +49 (0) 29 72 / 791-00 • Fax +49 (0) 29 72 / 791-1151

Kloster Grafschaft hospital has an intensive care department with 14 beds. All internal emergency diseases (heart attack, stroke, lung embolism, gastro-intestinal bleeding, etc.) can be treated here according to the latest medical knowledge.

A special focus of the hospital is the supervision and so-called weaning of patients after long-term respiration. During the weaning from the respiratory machine, the patient should be placed in the position to breathe on his own again.

Kloster Grafschaft hospital is one of the largest respiration and weaning centres in Germany. Approx. 200 patients, who received long-term respiration treatment, and who are transferred to us from intensive care wards of other acute medicine hospitals from all over Germany, are supervised each year. In approx. two-thirds of the cases, we succeed in weaning the patients from the mechanical respiration and thus enable the often seriously ill patient to return to a home environment. The relatives of the patient are integrated into the treatment concept. A limited number of rooms are available on the clinic site for relatives.

After the successful weaning there is often a further need for therapy in the form of non-invasive respiration (mask respiration) and physiotherapy. For this purpose, depending on the condition, the patient can be moved to the early rehabilitation department, which is affiliated with the hospital, after the long-term respiration, or to the specialist ward for initiation of home respiration.