Kolkata: Senior doctors to update critical patients' data in real time

KOLKATA: In a bid to arrest the deterioration of critical Covid patients at state-run facilities, three teams of four senior doctors will be checking on them every day from Monday to Saturday at Medical College Hospital, MR Bangur, Beliaghata ID Hospital, CNCI and Sagore Dutta Hospital. The experts will be working on real-time Covid Patient Management System (CPMS) database and will check all patients in intensive care units (ICU), cardiac care unit (CCU) and high dependency units (HDU)in these hospitals.

According to sources, every morning the CPMS - in which the details, condition and treatment regimen of every Covid patient in Bengal is updated - will provide the experts a list of critical patients in the facilities they visit. The teams will be provided with a tablet linked to the CPMS and they will have to visit every patient whose data is provided. The experts, after checking out on the critical patients, will have to update their observations in the real-time CPMS module.
The state health department has asked Aditi Dasgupta - a joint secretary in the department, now heading the data analysis cell - to provide the teams a list of critical patients that has been obtained from the CPMS. In an order, the health department said that the observations of the experts will be relayed to the hospital administration for immediate action.
The CPMS module - touted to be one-of-its-kind in the country - aims to be a complete repository of patients being treated at the Covid facilities in Bengal. The module went live on August 1. Sources indicated the state had already asked the hospitals to update the vital parameters of all Covid patients in the CPMS module four times a day. Early warning scores (EWS) of every critical patient must be updated twice daily. EWS for others will be updated once a day. The state has also appointed a team of senior nurses who will be responsible for uploading this data in CPMS.
Bengal reported 2005 Covid deaths on Saturday and the fatality rate at 2.1% was a shade more than the 2% across the country. But the reason for the focus on critical patients, sources said, was because the Covid deaths were significantly more in people with comorbidities in Bengal. July and August have also significantly seen a spike in Covid deaths in Bengal.