Our mission statement
We are a highly specialized surgical practice that focuses on people as unique individuals with their wishes, fears and complaints.
Our first obligation is therefore to maintain a friendly demeanor that is characterized by mutual respect and appreciation for all our patients. We work as a team to provide the best possible care for our patients.
The basis for this is a consistently high structural quality, which primarily means high-quality training and further education of our doctors and employees as well as attentiveness and openness to the latest scientific findings in medicine. With this in mind, the practice strives to have modern facilities and equipment for diagnostics, surgical therapy, patient care and practice organization. Medical practice is based on national and international medical guidelines issued by professional associations and on the findings of evidence-based medicine.
We offer our patients the highest level of international quality in medical care.
We regularly undergo further training to keep up to date with the latest knowledge.
We use a quality management system to evaluate and continuously improve our services.
The team
Thomas Kröger
Senior physician
Saskia Urbani
Specialist for visceral surgery
Andrea Ling
OR nurse
Sylwia Schmigelski
MFA
Elena Ziegler
Practice manager and medical economist
Christa Likokote-Yembe
MFA
Anna Ziegler
Apprentices
Our practice
Our practice is located on the 4th floor of the PAN Clinic in the heart of Cologne – directly in the Neumarkt Galerie with numerous stores and easy accessibility.
We treat both patients with statutory and private insurance. Since the introduction of the hybrid DRG in Germany in 2024, we can also offer the majority of operations for patients with statutory health insurance under inpatient conditions. For privately insured patients, this is usually also possible without complications.
The Hernia Center Cologne was founded in 2009 by Dr. Michael Schweins and taken over by Bernd Stechemesser in 2012. Since then, it has been consistently developed into a specialized center for hernia surgery and minimally invasive procedures.
With over 1,200 hernia operations per year, we are now one of the largest and most experienced hernia centers in Germany. We are also regularly listed in the FOCUS and Stern magazine lists of doctors.
Make an appointment
Arrange your appointment online here.
