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Internal Medicine
Our Department of Internal Medicine became an independent branch of this hospital and began operation at around May of 1988. It is a conglomeration of 10 major divisions. The entire group enables us to provide a holistic approach and treatment to each and every patient entering our doors. The divisions or subspecialties include Gatroenterology, Cardiology, Pulmonology, Nephrology, Neurology, Endocrinology & Metabolism, Infectious Diseases, Rheumatology & Immunology, Hematology, Gerontology, and Oncology. Though divided into different divisions, the Department of Internal Medicine functions as a single unit, as each member of the Department coordinates and contributes to the Department as a team. Currently, we have 30 full-time board-certified specialists, 5 part-time specialists, and 18 residents rotating in different subspecialties.
To date, we have a total of 176 beds in our internal medicine wards, 21 beds in our medical intensive care unit, 12 beds in our respiratory care center, 6 beds in our coronary care unit, and 30 beds in our hemodialysis center.
All divisions in our department work as a team and provide services, level of expertise and the quality of care that are on par with other leading regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. Our Gastroenterology division is a collaborative practice of gastroenterologists, hepatologists, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, and oncologists dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of digestive diseases. All their efforts provide “par excellence” services, making us one of the leaders in the field of Gastroenterology. The diagnoses and treatment capabilities of our endoscopy allow us to receive referrals from different top medical centers all over the country including patients from the National Taiwan University Hospital. Our division is also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, which includes endoscopic ultrasonography, intraductal ultrasonography, double-balloon enteroscopy and capsule endoscopy to further enhance our diagnostic capabilities. We are also well known with regards to “percutaneous transhepatic choledoscopy with electro-hydraulic lithotripsy” in treatment with biliary stones. Adding to the aforementioned expertise, our Gastroenterology division is also renowned for our success rate in treating hepatocellular carcinoma using radio-frequency ablation. We are proud to say that we are one of the pioneers of this technique in southern Taiwan.
Our Cardiology division enjoys the greatest reputation in the interventional treatment of cardiac catheterization with coronary heart disease in southern Taiwan. This division is the other half of the double-bladed sword (together with gastroenterology) that is spearheading this department to greater heights, and it has received recognitions from both patients and the medias alike. Almost 90% of all our cardiac catheterization procedures were performed or are being performed through the transradial route in order to lessen the patients’ discomfort, and to allow early ambulation, and faster recovery. For those with acute myocardial infarction, we could provide 24-hour emergent primary coronary intervention. For patients with acute myocardial infarction, we provide 24-hour immediate interventional therapy in order to reduce the amount of myocardial necrosis to improve patient survival. Other procedures such as carotid artery stenting, single or dual chamber pacemaker implantation, andelectrophysiologic studies with ablation for cardiac arrhythmias are also available.
Our Infectious Disease division implemented a series of unique control measures to reduce inpatient drug expense significantly and achieve good performance (52.8% in the proportion of the inpatient drug expense before September 2007 down to that of 48.4 in October 2007). The result is published in the Infectious Control Journal issued by Centers for Diseases Control, R.O.C. in 2010.
Our hemodialysis unit provides emergency hemodialysis 24 hours a day to patients in need.
Cooperated with Departments of Psychiatry and Otolaryngology, our Pulmonology and Neurology divisions established a sleep center with polysomnography to diagnose and treat physiologic or psychologic sleep-related disorders and to improve the quality of sleep of these patients.
In our Endocrinology and Metabolism section, we set up a ‘Diabetic Support Group”, which is a networking group for patients and families to obtain information regarding diabetes mellitus, treatment options, resources, and receive emotional support. We also opened a Nutrition Counseling Clinic to provide patients with chronic diseases of the deployment of control diet.
After the Tumor Building is completed in the future, we will expand services to cancer patients and expand divisions to radiation oncology. All these efforts would make our cancer care program more comprehensive.
In response to future medical ecology, the department has developed mature technologies. The Internal Medicine Department strives to hold and maintain a strict, high standard of medical care by encouraging to conduct basic and clinical research, and to attend or participate varied medical conference in domestic and aboard. This will ensure that our staff can provide treatment and service of the highest quality.
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