Emergency Response for Handling COVID -19 cases in Govt Hospitals

Emergency Response for Handling COVID -19 cases in Govt Hospitals

Setting Personnel Required Inventory/Activity/ Skills to be tested 

1. Outpatients facilities/ Initial Triage
Consultation Room Healthcare workers (Doctors and Nurses)
Healthcare workers (Doctors and Nurses)
Cleaners Waiting Room
Healthcare workers (Doctors and Nurses)
Physical examination of patients with
respiratory symptoms.
Inventory PPEs & Medicines, hand washing and sanitizer facility.
Physical examination of patients without respiratory symptoms but based on self-declaration and /or history
After and between consultations with patients with respiratory symptoms; Disinfectants.
Well ventilated areas with Exhaust Fans/Open Areas
2. Emergency /Inpatient facilities/Isolation Rooms and Duty Stations
 PPE  Drugs & Disposable
 Oxygen Apparatus
 Suction Machine 
 Hand washing and Hand sanitizer facility
Cleaners Laboratory Lab Technician
Administrative Areas All staff, including healthcare workers
Entering the room of COVID-19 patients with proper PPE
Collection of Respiratory samples
Administrative tasks that do not involve contact with COVID -19 patients but work on logistics and supply and record maintenance. Hand washing and hand sanitizer facility.

Setting Personnel Required
3. ICU Facilities ICUs
Respiratory specialists Anaesthesiologist
 ICU Nurses
 OT Technician
Inventory/Activity/ Skills to be tested
 PPEs
 Knowledge and skill as per treatment protocols
 Oxygen supply
 Emergency medicines
 Monitor
 Defibrillators
 Ventilators
4. Ambulance or transfer vehicle (For shifting to Tertiary Care Centre ) Healthcare workers
Driver with Paramedical workers
Transporting suspected COVID-19 patients to the referral healthcare facility.
Involved only in driving the patient with suspected COVID-19 disease and the driver’s compartment is separated from the main compartment. Assisting with
embarkation
/disembarkation of a patient with suspected COVID-19 disease.
Cleaners
Cleaning and disinfection after and between transport of patients with suspected COVID-19 disease to the referral healthcare facility
5. Details of Tertiary Care Centre (Contact No. of Nodal Person and Emergency No.) are available
General Tips:
1. In addition to using the appropriate PPE, frequent hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene should always be performed. PPE should be discarded in an appropriate waste container after use, and hand hygiene should be performed before putting on and after taking off PPE.
2. The number of visitors should be restricted. If visitors must enter a COVID-19 patient’s room, they should be provided with clear instructions about how to put on and remove PPE and about performing hand hygiene before putting on and after removing PPE; this should be supervised by a healthcare worker.
3. This category includes the use of no-touch thermometers, thermal imaging cameras, and limited observation and questioning, all while maintaining a spatial distance of at least 1 m.
4. All rapid response team members must be trained in performing hand hygiene and how to put on and remove PPE to avoid self-contamination.
Laboratory investigations (i) All kits required for collection (Respiratory samples like Nasopharyngeal Swab, Sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage) such as swabs, VTMs, Zip Lock Bag & Cold Chain etc. are available (ii) All lab investigations of a COVID-19 suspect case should be restricted to a bare minimum as deemed appropriate by the treating physician till such time as the confirmatory COVID-19 tests are made available. After confirmation, proper bio safety precautions should be observed if any invasive investigations are done.
Assessment of Healthcare workers
Doctors, Nurses, Technicians should undergo knowledge assessment along with skill assessment and if needed the requisite training should be provided to fill the gaps. A Microbiologists should be posted for Supervising the samples collected from the patients in a proper way and ensuring the transportation of sample to designated laboratories for testing under appropriate condition including maintenance of cold chain for this purpose.
Public Health Specialist should be engaged to advise about the reduction of infection in the medical care facility. They will also supervise the handing over of discharged patients to State Surveillance teams for monitoring and tracking these patients till the requisite period is over. They will also supervise proper biomedical waste disposal of the healthcare facility.