A center for coordinating the hospitalization of COVID-19 patients has been established in Vitebsk
As the chief physician of the hospital, Andrey Zakharov, said, ambulances from all over the city, and sometimes the region, bring patients with signs of acute respiratory infections to their center. At the reception department level, examinations are carried out, including radiological diagnostics and express testing. Upon diagnosis of COVID-19, the issue of hospitalization of the patient to one or another medical institution, where infectious beds are deployed, is decided. Some of the admitted patients who do not require inpatient treatment are assigned to outpatient treatment. If the suspicions of coronavirus are not confirmed, but the patient requires hospitalization, they are sent to a medical institution according to their profile.
– There is a clear differentiation of patients. The main essence of this sorting, to use military language, is to avoid infecting clean hospitals and thereby preserve the healthcare bed fund resources, – emphasized Andrey Vasilievich.
The head of the reception and diagnostic department, Evgeny Zhamoyda, noted that the workload on his team has increased significantly, but the main advantage of such centralization is that the hospitalization of patients with coronavirus has become easier. The attending physician initially sees which repurposed hospital the patient can be sent to, where a free bed will be guaranteed for them. Operational information on the availability of free beds in the city's medical institutions is updated three times a day. On the other hand, it is easier to work during the autumn wave of coronavirus, as a certain experience has already been accumulated, and medical personnel are provided in advance with all necessary personal protective equipment for providing care to COVID patients.
– If in the spring, when everything began, we had no idea what this disease was, and there was practically no information in the world, then at the moment we have experience, scientific publications and statistics have also become available, which we can rely on, and treatment orders are being updated promptly. The coronavirus is very insidious, but we already know what to expect and how to act, – says Evgeny Veniaminovich.
Some COVID patients remain in the same hospital – 220 beds have been allocated for them here, including 12 intensive care beds. The infectious disease hospital, as during the first wave, is located on the basis of the therapeutic building, and the obstetric department is also involved. The experience of last spring allowed us to calculate our actions one step ahead.
– We prepared for the repurposing in advance, having previously transferred the ENT department to the surgical building and the neurological department to the regional hospital. Taking into account the available experience, we tried to avoid an emergency and tension in our work, – the chief physician emphasized.
In addition, the number of oxygen outlets has been increased to almost 140, and oxygen humidifiers have been updated, as this hospital mainly admits patients who need oxygen support. Even before the increase in morbidity, a stock of medicines and personal protective equipment was created, which is replenished in a timely manner.
The result of the coordinated work of the team involved in the fight against COVID-19 is lives saved from the devastating virus. Every day, an average of 20 patients who have had coronavirus are successfully discharged from the hospital and transferred to outpatient follow-up treatment.
It is important that Vitebsk Emergency Hospital continues to provide specialized care. Surgeons and traumatologists are working in the usual mode. For patients with coronavirus who need specialized care, an operating room, an isolation ward in intensive care, and a department for pregnant women are provided. And such cases, when a patient received both infectious and specialized care simultaneously, have already occurred in the practice of local doctors.