How the reception department of the Orsha hospital works, and why the spread of not only viruses but also rumors is dangerous
The coronavirus is testing us all. It has also inadvertently become a litmus test, showing who is worth what. The world is literally applauding healthcare professionals who remain on duty. For example, residents of Spain went out onto the balconies of apartment buildings to thank medics with ovations... There is also reason to thank the healthcare workers of Orsha. Our correspondent visited Semashko City Hospital No. 1 to make sure everything was under control.
Alexey Korotky, chief physician of the Orsha Central Polyclinic, which includes the hospital, said that all services are operating in standard mode, with only additional preventive measures to reduce the spread of acute respiratory infections.
— At the same time, scheduled treatment and hospitalization have been postponed for a while, patients with elevated temperatures are served at home, and they are issued sick leave certificates. Medications for certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, can be ordered by phone. The prescription will be left at the pharmacy — it is convenient and helps to avoid crowding in the polyclinic. If previously it received about a hundred patients a day, now it is 20-30. A case where less means better and calmer, given the not-so-simple epidemiological situation.
The chief physician suggests taking a look at the "front line" together — the admission department. You can only enter through the main entrance, and mandatory thermometry is unavoidable. A special non-contact thermometer is held to the forehead, a few seconds — and the result is ready. If there is no elevated temperature, you can move on, explains the head of the hospital, Vladislav Akulovich:
— Now we measure the temperature not only of patients, but of everyone who wants to enter. The medical staff themselves undergo thermometry about three times a day. So write that the morning of our doctors and nurses begins with a thermometer. First, we measure the temperature at home, before going to work, if there are deviations from the norm, self-isolation is the best option. Our medical staff are protected, including with special anti-epidemic suits.
Ambulance workers wear these if there is even the slightest suspicion that a patient is infected. There is no need to be afraid of specific uniforms, this is normal.
Immediately after us, 16-year-old Orsha resident Alexander Mitin passes through the infrared thermometer. The guy is waiting for an appointment with a pediatric surgeon: he recently had surgery, and now he needs to check the seam. The fact that they are measuring temperature is very important, shares the opinion of the young man's mother, Svetlana Borisovna:
— With all these talks about coronavirus, the measure is definitely justified. In general, you go to the Semashko Hospital with peace of mind - everything is sterile, the equipment is state-of-the-art, and the doctors' attitude is highly professional. I trust our medical staff completely. I am sure they will not let us down.
The long-awaited move to the new building of Hospital No. 1 was completed in 2018. The impulse to the long-delayed construction was given by the President's directive. As a result, the outcome exceeded expectations: many regional clinics could envy the high-tech equipment and capabilities of the Orsha hospital. The ten-story building houses everything modern and necessary for people to be healthy. Moreover, it was in Orsha two years ago that a unique project was implemented: using a virtual cloud, Hospital No. 1 was connected into a single information network with city polyclinics and the ambulance station. This advanced example of digital medicine has fully justified itself. Paramedics respond to calls with computer tablets, which receive patients' electronic medical records via mobile internet, specifies Daria Zaitseva, head of the admission department:
— It's convenient and fast, a person's entire medical history is at your fingertips: you can see what they've been sick with, what tests they've had, what medications they are allergic to. Now the list also includes information on whether the patient has recently traveled abroad, where exactly, and whether they have been in contact with people who could potentially be carriers of COVID-19.
During her work, Daria Zaitseva has seen a lot. She does not support the current, without exaggeration, hysteria around COVID-19. She says the problem is that people sometimes diagnose themselves and make medical conclusions on their own – via the internet. It is difficult to convince them that panic primarily creates problems, not effective solutions. But it is necessary. These are self-evident truths: you need to listen to doctors, observe hygiene, and everything will be fine. Vladislav Balashov, an anesthesiologist, shares the same opinion:
— Our intensive care unit operates like clockwork under any circumstances. Quarantine measures affected us to a lesser extent – all because intensive care is already a place where sterility, protective masks, etc., are commonplace.
I'm interested to know if anything has changed in the doctor's daily life. Vladislav Grigoryevich admits: perhaps he has only started to avoid large crowds, and prefers to walk instead of using public transport. This is only beneficial for his well-being and good mood.
There are two medics in the family of the head of the purulent surgery department, Pavel Kapitonov. His wife Elena is an obstetrician-gynecologist at the local maternity hospital. She has been in the field for 10 years, Pavel Viktorovich calculates:
— And this is not the first time such additional precautionary measures have been introduced in my practice. Let's recall the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Calmness, coordinated work of all services, and prevention helped to get out of the situation with minimal losses. We will also survive today's COVID-19 and be healthy!
Rumors, perhaps, spread faster than any virus. Internet hoaxes periodically fly over Orsha. For example, at the time of our arrival, an "important news" came that the ice arena was allegedly being converted into a large infirmary to accommodate all patients with coronavirus infection. Naturally, there is no question of the truthfulness of such statements. The chief physician of the Orsha Central Polyclinic, Alexey Korotky, reassures:
— To date, more than 30,000 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in our country. In Orsha, they were done about 200 times. And positive results can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The first call with a request to take a test came to us on January 30 at 5 am – from a person who returned from Wuhan. As for the number of patients with pneumonia, the figures since the beginning of this year are even lower than for the first quarter of 2019: 430 cases versus 455.
Smear collection points in Orsha have been set up in the infectious diseases department of the Semashko Hospital, as well as at city polyclinics. The result will be known the next day. Two hotlines are available for those who wish to receive consultation. The phones are on the polyclinic website, Alexey Vasilyevich specifies:
— You can get tested not by desire, but by indication. That is, tests are necessary for those people who have recently returned from countries that are on the list of unfavorable due to the COVID-19 outbreak, or for those who have had close contactwith them. The list of those most frequently checked includes tourists, long-haul truck drivers, foreign students, and their close contacts.
Alexey Korotky, chief physician of the Orsha Central Polyclinic, which includes the hospital, said that all services are operating in standard mode, with only additional preventive measures to reduce the spread of acute respiratory infections.
— At the same time, scheduled treatment and hospitalization have been postponed for a while, patients with elevated temperatures are served at home, and they are issued sick leave certificates. Medications for certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, can be ordered by phone. The prescription will be left at the pharmacy — it is convenient and helps to avoid crowding in the polyclinic. If previously it received about a hundred patients a day, now it is 20-30. A case where less means better and calmer, given the not-so-simple epidemiological situation.
The chief physician suggests taking a look at the "front line" together — the admission department. You can only enter through the main entrance, and mandatory thermometry is unavoidable. A special non-contact thermometer is held to the forehead, a few seconds — and the result is ready. If there is no elevated temperature, you can move on, explains the head of the hospital, Vladislav Akulovich:
— Now we measure the temperature not only of patients, but of everyone who wants to enter. The medical staff themselves undergo thermometry about three times a day. So write that the morning of our doctors and nurses begins with a thermometer. First, we measure the temperature at home, before going to work, if there are deviations from the norm, self-isolation is the best option. Our medical staff are protected, including with special anti-epidemic suits.
Emergency medical workers (from left to right) Deputy Head Svetlana Rebko and paramedic Elena Sugak are always on the front line
Ambulance workers wear these if there is even the slightest suspicion that a patient is infected. There is no need to be afraid of specific uniforms, this is normal.
Immediately after us, 16-year-old Orsha resident Alexander Mitin passes through the infrared thermometer. The guy is waiting for an appointment with a pediatric surgeon: he recently had surgery, and now he needs to check the seam. The fact that they are measuring temperature is very important, shares the opinion of the young man's mother, Svetlana Borisovna:
— With all these talks about coronavirus, the measure is definitely justified. In general, you go to the Semashko Hospital with peace of mind - everything is sterile, the equipment is state-of-the-art, and the doctors' attitude is highly professional. I trust our medical staff completely. I am sure they will not let us down.
Nurses Tatyana Zhidetskaya and Nadezhda Kosinets are on friendly terms with modern cloud-based medical records.
The long-awaited move to the new building of Hospital No. 1 was completed in 2018. The impulse to the long-delayed construction was given by the President's directive. As a result, the outcome exceeded expectations: many regional clinics could envy the high-tech equipment and capabilities of the Orsha hospital. The ten-story building houses everything modern and necessary for people to be healthy. Moreover, it was in Orsha two years ago that a unique project was implemented: using a virtual cloud, Hospital No. 1 was connected into a single information network with city polyclinics and the ambulance station. This advanced example of digital medicine has fully justified itself. Paramedics respond to calls with computer tablets, which receive patients' electronic medical records via mobile internet, specifies Daria Zaitseva, head of the admission department:
— It's convenient and fast, a person's entire medical history is at your fingertips: you can see what they've been sick with, what tests they've had, what medications they are allergic to. Now the list also includes information on whether the patient has recently traveled abroad, where exactly, and whether they have been in contact with people who could potentially be carriers of COVID-19.
During her work, Daria Zaitseva has seen a lot. She does not support the current, without exaggeration, hysteria around COVID-19. She says the problem is that people sometimes diagnose themselves and make medical conclusions on their own – via the internet. It is difficult to convince them that panic primarily creates problems, not effective solutions. But it is necessary. These are self-evident truths: you need to listen to doctors, observe hygiene, and everything will be fine. Vladislav Balashov, an anesthesiologist, shares the same opinion:
— Our intensive care unit operates like clockwork under any circumstances. Quarantine measures affected us to a lesser extent – all because intensive care is already a place where sterility, protective masks, etc., are commonplace.
Daria Zaitseva, head of the admission department, is confident that the main thing is not to give in to panic.
I'm interested to know if anything has changed in the doctor's daily life. Vladislav Grigoryevich admits: perhaps he has only started to avoid large crowds, and prefers to walk instead of using public transport. This is only beneficial for his well-being and good mood.
There are two medics in the family of the head of the purulent surgery department, Pavel Kapitonov. His wife Elena is an obstetrician-gynecologist at the local maternity hospital. She has been in the field for 10 years, Pavel Viktorovich calculates:
— And this is not the first time such additional precautionary measures have been introduced in my practice. Let's recall the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Calmness, coordinated work of all services, and prevention helped to get out of the situation with minimal losses. We will also survive today's COVID-19 and be healthy!
Rumors, perhaps, spread faster than any virus. Internet hoaxes periodically fly over Orsha. For example, at the time of our arrival, an "important news" came that the ice arena was allegedly being converted into a large infirmary to accommodate all patients with coronavirus infection. Naturally, there is no question of the truthfulness of such statements. The chief physician of the Orsha Central Polyclinic, Alexey Korotky, reassures:
— To date, more than 30,000 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in our country. In Orsha, they were done about 200 times. And positive results can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The first call with a request to take a test came to us on January 30 at 5 am – from a person who returned from Wuhan. As for the number of patients with pneumonia, the figures since the beginning of this year are even lower than for the first quarter of 2019: 430 cases versus 455.
Smear collection points in Orsha have been set up in the infectious diseases department of the Semashko Hospital, as well as at city polyclinics. The result will be known the next day. Two hotlines are available for those who wish to receive consultation. The phones are on the polyclinic website, Alexey Vasilyevich specifies:
— You can get tested not by desire, but by indication. That is, tests are necessary for those people who have recently returned from countries that are on the list of unfavorable due to the COVID-19 outbreak, or for those who have had close contactwith them. The list of those most frequently checked includes tourists, long-haul truck drivers, foreign students, and their close contacts.
Discharge Issue Being Resolved
To prevent the import and spread of coronavirus infection cases, patients suspected of having COVID-19 are hospitalized at City Hospital No. 3 in Baran. It was there that departments were repurposed for the hospitalization of patients with probable coronavirus disease cases and Level 1 COVID-19 contacts. The hospital has organized round-the-clock collection of material for laboratory testing for COVID-19. If the diagnosis is confirmed, patients are hospitalized in isolation wards of the infectious diseases department of Orsha City Hospital No. 3. As of April 2, 5 people with confirmed COVID-19 were under medical observation in the infectious diseases department. The patients' condition is satisfactory. In the near future, they will undergo repeated laboratory tests, after which the issue of discharge will be resolved."Narodnaya Gazeta".