Update details of every patient, West Bengal govt tells hospitals

KOLKATA: The state health department has asked all Covid facilities in Bengal to update patient treatment details in a centralised portal for effective monitoring. The Protocol Monitoring Team (PMT), which has been visiting Covid facilities randomly, has noticed “certain lacunae in practice that needs urgent rectification”. The team has been regularly nudging the Covid facilities to adhere to the laid down treatment and discharge protocols.

Experts visiting Covid facilities have noticed that hospitals were not adhering to the revised discharge protocols issued on May 22. In the new SOP, attending doctors can discharge mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate patients if they have no fever for three days and have stable blood-oxygen level. Doctor are required to advice week-long home quarantine with no requirement for a Covid-negative test.
For moderate cases, doctors need to see whether patients are without fever for three days and can maintain oxygen saturation without support. Doctors are required to conduct an RT-PCR test after clinical recovery only in severe cases. Sources said some hospitals were not discharging patients with even moderate symptoms, clogging up beds that severe patients require.
To enable centralised monitoring, the health department has asked the hospitals treating Covid patients to complete all entries for new patients that are admitted, including all symptoms and co-morbidities, at the time of admission. Stress has also been laid on a once-a-day update on the Early Warning Score of every patient, a diagnostic tool to determine the degree of illness that can indicate whether the patient's condition is improving or worsening. Laboratory investigation data and all details related to discharge or deaths should also be updated, the order states.
On Saturday, in a fresh advisory, the state made it mandatory for hospitals to record the oxygen precipitation device being used, rate of oxygen flow and target oxygen saturation of the patient. The ventilation strategy for each patient will also have to be clearly displayed and adhered to.