Saideep Healthcare & Research Pvt Ltd
This hospital stars as the region’s most promising healthcare provider offering world-class medical treatment, fulfilling the want of a state of art healthcare facility in the region. Comprising of the best in class technology with highly qualified specialists, Saideep Healthcare has boldly battled the covid crisis and ranks as a high-performing hospital offering advanced medical treatments during the pandemic.
Saideep Healthcare & Research Pvt. Ltd. is a state of the art 260-bedded tertiary care center multi-specialty hospital located in Ahmednagar, which is a semi-urban area in western India. It caters not only to local but to patients from its adjoining 4 districts as well. According to Dr. Deepak Siddavaram, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, the Healthcare System in India is divided into Government and Private sectors. The government sector mostly concentrates upon preventive medicine-vaccinations, mother & child care, and some community-acquired/contagious/ vector-borne diseases. So most (which more than 50-80%) of the burden of healthcare is borne by the private sector.
He further states that “During the pandemic, Saideep Hospital being the largest in the area was invariably selected to cope up with the COVID19 pandemic and was ready to face the obvious challenges. With an able infrastructure and the largest pool of certified and trained staff and in practice, the infection control protocols were all plugged in place.” Covid ready, Overcoming obstacles Saideep being a 13 storey-vertical building faced many obstacles for separation of COVID and NonCOVID areas. “We had to rearrange the workflows for entry and exits of patients and visitors as well as staff for both areas. Additionally, we needed to allot separate passenger as well as stretcher lifts for both areas’ states Dr. Siddavaram. Fortunately, the structure of Saideep allowed for these changes and is still coping well with the pandemic. Saideep Hospital allotted has allotted 200 beds exclusively for COVID19 cases while the remaining beds were used for non-COVID patients.
CASE MANAGEMENT
All the critical cases were previously shifted to ICU as soon as possible from the triage area but in COVID19 times it was equally important to detect/rule out COVID infection. Every case was screened with Rapid antigen/RT-PCR and HRCT regardless of the presenting complaints. It invariably increased the burden on the Triage unit. The hospital created a separate Triage area for known/ suspected COVID19 cases. Life support assessment The cases were prioritized as per their vital signs, symptoms, HRCT score, and lab results. Generally, a mass disaster requires triage but we had to resort to the triage process for pneumonia-like illness due to COVID19 which was a unique learning experience. The hospital had to judiciously use Oxygen support therapy and use respiratory support devices viz. Bi-PAP machines, HFNO machines, and ventilators as per patient load. We went on a war footing and increased the capacity of oxygen bed availability expecting the influx of COVID19 cases and it proved to be beneficial.
All supply chains viz. pharmacy, food, laundry, etc. were disrupted during the lockdown. The system had to innovate and improvise to normalize the processes. For example, previously the pneumatic transport system in the hospital was exclusively used for lab sample transport only, but now it is being used for medicines delivery also.
CONTROLLING THE COVID SPREAD
The hospital’s robust in-house infection control protocol and efficient training put well in practice served well in this COVID19 pandemic. All 700+ employees were screened for COVID19 with RAT/RT-PCR as well as HRCT. It helped to detect infection among staff in the early stages and initiation of treatment and prevention of spread. 20 doctors and more than 80 nursing staff were initially infected with COVID19 in the line of their duty of which 10% needed intensive care but no ventilator support and zero mortality. The hospital's current infection rate is now less than 1% and among the recovered cases there is no indication of any sequels. According to the new data post-COVID19 complications, will be a major burden, particularly for cardiovascular incidences where substantial mortality and morbidity are expected. The hospital is closely following the patients prone to such events. To date, Saideep Healthcare has handled more than 1800 COVID19 cases as on May 2020.
TRUSTED AND DEPENDABLE COLLABORATION
Saideep healthcare has invested in many Mindray products such as multi-para monitors, defibrillators, infusion pumps, ventilators as well as Operation Room equipment like anesthesia machines, Lights, and Tables. The hospital has opted for an advanced Beneview platform from Mindray which served extremely well during COVID19 times as remote monitoring was possible with the help of the CMS viewer app and the CMS system. The customized alarm settings of monitors and ventilators are of great help to the nursing staff which lightens the manual monitoring burden and enables them to concentrate more on patient care. Though the current equipment which used does not predict any mortality/morbidity score, it shall be willing to try any such solutions if offered in the future. The hospital would readily like to have a data available by Mindray for efficient clinical use of our critical care equipment as there is always some scope for improvement. The Mindray technical team was and is always available to assist us in our need and all problems are always resolved promptly.
During the pandemic, the hospital team and doctors have displayed vigor and courage to handle the unseen crisis. The staff adhered to necessary protocols, the current pandemic has taught the system to be more resilient to adversities and spurred the desire for selfimprovement that can lead to better patient outcome and managed cared.