Dr. Petra Scheffer replaces Dr. Jürgen Hagenah after five and a half years
Since 2015, Dr. Jürgen Hagenah has been medical director at the Hellersen Sports Clinic. After five and a half years, he will now be succeeded on November 1 by Dr. Petra Scheffer, chief physician for plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery/hand surgery. Dr. Scheffer was already appointed as his deputy in February of this year. In a ceremony, Board Member Dirk Burghaus and Dr. Christoph Niessen, Presidium Sporthilfe NRW e.V., presented Dr. Hagenah with a small token of thanks for his work and introduced Dr. Petra Scheffer as the new Medical Director and Dr. Ulrich Schneider as her deputy.
In addition to a small token of appreciation for his hard work, board member Dirk Burghaus also presented Dr. Hagenah with a sports clinic soccer on which all the executives had previously signed.
"At the time, our board asked me if I could imagine taking over from my predecessor Dr. Jakob. Actually, I didn't want to at first, since the office of medical director involves an enormous amount of time over and above normal work," Dr. Hagenah recalls; but then he agreed. Due to structural changes, the originally planned four years ultimately turned into five and a half. But now Dr. Hagenah wants to devote himself more to his duties as chief physician of anesthesiology again, which is why he is handing over the scepter to Dr. Scheffer. "In recent years, it has always been particularly important to me to take the staff along with me when decisions were made and to drive things forward together with them," says Dr. Hagenah. He is particularly pleased that he was able to help initiate and oversee the introduction of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery/Hand Surgery at the Sports Clinic. "I always wanted to have hand surgery here," says the chief physician. And the specialties of foot and pediatric surgery were also added during his tenure as medical director. A major concern of board member Dirk Burghaus last year was to include special pain medicine from the Marienhospital in Letmathe, which was closed at short notice, in the sports clinic, and Dr. Hagenah also welcomed this decision. He himself has been working at the Sports Clinic since April 2006, having previously worked as an assistant physician at the clinic between 1987 and 1989. He has been chief physician of anesthesiology since October 2006.
Internal structures have also been broken up and premises created in recent years. However, there is still a need for action in this area, explains Dr. Hagenah. One of the most important tasks of his office is to act as the physicians' representative and to ensure that economic decisions are not made to the detriment of medicine or patients. He is responsible for the safety of medical care and hospital hygiene, as well as his legal responsibility. In recent months, as a member of the hospital's Corona Committee, he has been particularly concerned with issues relating to the pandemic and how to deal with it in the hospital. "I would like to thank Dr. Hagenah for the very good and always constructive cooperation over the past years. We have been able to achieve a great deal together and I look forward to continuing on this path with Dr. Scheffer and the future deputy medical director, Dr. Ulrich Schneider," says Dirk Burghaus.
Dr. Petra Scheffer is already well versed in the subject through her position as deputy. She has been working at the Sports Clinic since January 2019, first as Head Physician for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery/Hand Surgery and a year later she was appointed Chief Physician. Since Dr. Petra Scheffer had undergone additional training as a hygiene officer physician, she was to support Dr. Hagenah as his deputy in this area, among others. "I gave interdisciplinary lectures for physicians and nursing in January of this year with specially shot internal videos, for example, on correct hygienic dressing changes," she reports.
In her previous career, Dr. Petra Scheffer worked part-time as an emergency physician for six years as a resident. "Here, fast concentrated work hand in hand with the rescue team is required," she reports. In addition, after her residency she was involved in several reorganization projects at the Lüdenscheid Clinic, where she worked for about 18 years. Here, among other things, she served for one and a half years as acting chief physician of the plastic surgery department. Through her career, she feels well prepared for her task as Medical Director.
She also gets support at her side. Her successor as Deputy Medical Director will be Dr. Ulrich Schneider, Senior Physician in Sports Medicine. The specialist in internal medicine with additional qualifications in sports medicine and chiropractic is also a member of the hygiene commission and has already been hygiene officer of the sports clinic since 2012. Dr. Schneider has been working at the Hellersen Sports Clinic since February 2000 and took over as head of the sports medicine department in 2015. As a sports physician, he can look back on many years of work for the DFB and was also involved in organizing a medical network for the teams and referees for the 2006 Men's World Cup, the 2010 U20 World Cup and the 2011 Women's World Cup.
The new duo at the medical helm is looking forward to a good cooperation with all parties involved and to further expanding the supra-regional good reputation of the sports clinic together with board member Dirk Burghaus.
The tasks and functions of a medical director are handled very differently in Germany. They range from representative tasks in an honorary capacity to full-time medical management of a hospital. The larger the hospital, the more frequent the full-time position. However, the liability risk for the medical director is independent of the type of activity and exists in both honorary and full-time positions. At the Hellersen Sports Clinic, the position is held as a part-time position.
Press contact
Sarah Burghaus
Head of Marketing, Corporate Communication & PR, Press Spokesperson
sarah.burghaus@hellersen.de
Marie Schulz
Public Relations
marie.schulz@hellersen.de
