NCRHA introduces fever, cough and cold checkpoint at health facilities

NORTH Central Health Authority (NCRHA) CEO Davlin Thomas. File photo by Sureash Cholai
NORTH Central Health Authority (NCRHA) CEO Davlin Thomas. File photo by Sureash Cholai

THE North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) has introduced a fever, cough and cold checkpoint, along with isopods, in an effort to eliminate the mixing of covid19 and non-covid19 patients, using tent facilities and a clear delineation and modifying of process flow systems.

“This is essential to ensure that patients with non-covid19 complaints feel safe visiting the facilities of the RHA and facilitate diversion into the parallel pathway,” the authority said in a recent press release. Suspected covid19 cases will be processed under the 40x50 tent at health facilities within the NCRHA's remit.

This system includes several checkpoints set up at various entry points in the hospital so that patients without symptoms of the virus are not exposed to suspected cases.

“The tent’s design is an open design, with zipped windows, which allows for unobstructed passage of air and aerosol dilution to mitigate nosocomial infection,” the releases said.

At the Emergency Departments, patients are separated into covid19 and non-covid19 pathways. The fever, cough and cold checkpoint is fitted with a functional resuscitation room equipped with oxygen and a defibrillator.

The tent facility also has a dedicated doffing area for the changing of PPEs, sanitisation stations private rooms and access to washroom facilities as well as an industrial-grade swabbing booth to protect staff from becoming infected when testing for covid19.

Isopods – a piece of equipment that is used as an isolation unit – have been places at the Adult and Paediatric Emergency Departments of the NCRHA. These isopods are fully encapsulated devices that separate and protect both staff and patients. The devices are placed directly on the patient’s bed and it’s equipped with a powerful filter well below the micron size of the covid19 virus.

CEO Davlin Thomas said, “Our objective was to effectively set up an alternative system where we would be able to assure patient and staff safety in light of covid19 and also assure consistent service...the noble segregation of potential covid19 patients and other ill patients people, which could only be facilitated by the hard work, endeavour and sacrifice of our nurses, doctors and all our medical staff, clerks, customer service representatives and patient escorts, who brave the frontline every day to protect this country.”

The tents form part of our systemic innovations to facilitate quality service to our people, which is at our core, is our primary function. Other than that, we would have to build whole new buildings, to accommodate the segregation,”

He said this is an addition to the authority’s attempts to modernise health care into a more efficient and reliable service to meet the demands brought on by the pandemic.

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