BETWEEN CONVERSION BOXES AND EMERGENCIES – A CLINIC UNDER CONVERSION is the second report on the Merheim Clinic in Cologne. In the new episode, the municipal hospital is accompanied through an enormous logistical challenge: A relocation during ongoing operations.

The Cologne-Merheim Clinic is a maximum care hospital with 752 beds and more than 20,000 inpatients every year. Every minute, doctors are on duty in the emergency department, intensive care unit or operating theater to save lives.

However, the hospital in Merheim has had a problem for years: many important specialist departments are spread across the huge hospital grounds, making the distances too long for patients. This is why the city of Cologne’s clinics want to bring all the facilities together in a new building. The cost of the six-storey building, including a parking garage with 650 parking spaces, the medical facilities and a new helipad on the roof: 70 million euros. But what happens when such a huge medical apparatus has to be relocated during ongoing operations? The Saturday documentary accompanies the Cologne maximum care provider as it faces its biggest challenge: between building inspections, packing boxes and providing care in the emergency outpatient department, doctors have to cope with the move during their daily routine.

ZWISCHEN UMZUGSKISTEN UND NOTFÄLLEN – EINE KLINIK IM UMBAU was broadcast on VOX on August 18, 2012 at 9:45 pm.