Share patient health status twice daily, hospitals told

Noida: Private hospitals will have to come up with a system through which vital parameters of Covid patients can be shared with the health department twice daily. The decision was taken on Tuesday during a meeting between senior officials of the health department from Lucknow and representatives of several prominent hospitals in the district.
The principal secretary, medical education department, Alok Kumar, and the director of medical education department, KK Gupta, urged senior doctors and administrative officials deputed at Covid hospitals to strengthen patient information system.“All hospitals treating Covid patients will have to send a list with the vital parameters of each patient twice in a day to officials in Lucknow. The details are expected to be shared on a portal being readied by the directorate of medical and health services,” said an official from a private hospital who attended the meeting held over video conference.
The daily log will have to cover physiological details of patients, including temperature, oxygen saturation level, blood pressure, heart rate and a general overview of the treatment plan that is being followed. Leading government and private medical colleges and institutes from other districts have also been asked to follow the same system. The objective is to send timely updates to relatives of patients from a centralised system in Lucknow, officials said.
Meanwhile, Gautam Budh Nagar district administration will start a drive to find out if hospitals have been briefing relatives of Covid patients about their health status on a regular basis.
District magistrate Suhas LY said all hospitals had been asked to set up help desks from May 13. “We had been getting complaints about how relatives of Covid patients were not getting updates from hospitals. We had issued guidelines and a circular to private and government facilities asking them to share daily bulletins of patients with their families. A compliance report has to be shared with the health department on a daily basis and we will corroborate the information. It has been a week now, and things should be in place,” he said.
The general secretary of Indian Medical Association in Noida, Mohita Sharma, said that most hospitals have started sharing patient details with their families/attendants and maintaining logs of the calls made. “Some private nursing homes and hospitals are not attached to the administration. But they are treating Covid patients. Officials in those facilities have also been asked to follow the same process,” Sharma added.