HealthManagement, Volume 20 - Issue 5, 2020
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Editorial
COVID-19 Superheroes
COVID-19 has affected 15 million people across the globe, and meanwhile, over 600,000 deaths are associated with it. Even my father, having some pre-conditions, passed away because of it. The healthcare systems and economies of more than 200 countries have been severely affected, also impacting healthcare workers both physically and psychologically. Since they are at the frontline taking care of infected...
Management Matters
Conception of COVID-19 Auxiliary Hospital from Nursing Management Perspective
The following experience report describes the development of a Personnel Concept in the field of patient medical care for the operation of the COVID-19 Auxiliary Hospital at the Hannover Exhibition Centre. The focus of the challenge was the creation of a Training Concept to provide adequate staff for patient care at the hospital. For this purpose, the chronological summary of the existing theoretical measur...
Fighting the Pandemic in Brazil - Experience of Largest Hospital Network
Founded in 1977 by cardiologist Jorge Moll, Rede D’Or São Luiz (RDSL) is today the largest private hospital operator in Brazil, with 37 hospitals, including high-level Star units, and 5,200 operational beds. In the face of the pandemic, RDSL has been supporting the public system and participated in the creation of over 1,100 new beds for public patients. HealthManagement.org spoke to Paulo Moll, RDSL CE...
Point-of-View
Agfa HealthCare Introduces XERO Universal Viewer & Microsoft Teams Integration During COVID-19
Agfa HealthCare and Microsoft Teams have partnered up to provide new communication and collaboration solutions to help healthcare providers and clinicians in their response to COVID-19. Agfa HealthCare and Microsoft have joined forces to connect their XERO Universal Viewer and Microsoft Teams platforms.Paul Lipton, Manager of Product Development at Agfa, has developed a platform that would allow caregiver...
The Role of Procalcitonin for Risk Assessment and Treatment of COVID-19 Patients
Procalcitonin is widely used to assess the risk of bacterial infection and disease progression. Can it be an additional tool to identify COVID-19 patients at risk of severe disease? Procalcitonin (PCT) is a widely used biomarker to assess the risk of bacterial infection and disease progression.Early evidence suggests that PCT may also be a valuable tool in identifying COVID-19 patients at high risk for cl...
COVID-19 Antibody Testing – Why it Matters and Factors to Consider
As we move into the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a need to test a broad strata of population, much more than what molecular tests can handle. The solution lies with serological tests. As the world continues the fight against COVID-19, healthcare executives are in an uncomfortable position – having to make critical decisions without answers they would typically obtain to guide thei...
Imaging Solutions for a New Reality
During these challenging times, Canon Medical Systems has continued to provide high quality support to its customers and partners. Jack Hoogendoorn, European Director Marketing, provides an overview of the solutions offered by Canon during the COVID-19 crisis. We are all experiencing challenging times due to the Coronavirus, which is still spreading around the world. Just like everybody else, we at Canon...
Cover Story
Tragedy of COVID-19
Adaora Okoli is a medical doctor working to strengthen health systems in low-income communities and achieve equitable access to health for all. In 2014, she contracted the Ebola Virus Disease while treating a patient in Nigeria and had to fight for her own life. Since then she has been an advocate for survivors, universal health coverage and global health, to the point that Bill Gates recognised her as one...
Nurses Are Not Soldiers
Sabine is a staff nurse who has had COVID-19 patients in her ward, got infected herself and started a campaign for personal protective equipment delivery. But she doesn’t want to be called a ‘hero.’ In early June, she talked to HealthManagement.org about her COVID-19 experience and how the pandemic has made her question everything, even her calling. I work in an acute hospital setting in Brist...
Radiographers on the Frontline
During the COVID-19 pandemic, radiographers continue to provide high quality diagnostic imaging services and deliver cancer treatments, while ensuring the safety of the patients. Radiographers working in medical imaging, nuclear medicine, and radiotherapy have continued to provide essential services during the pandemic.COVID-19 has presented many challenges for radiographers who have responded well to ove...
“Not in My Care Home”
In early summer, a care home on the outskirts of Lyon in France made headlines in Europe. 4 June marked the end of the 47-day voluntary lockdown of its staff together with the 106 residents. This was done to protect the elderly from the coronavirus. The facility director Valérie Martin talked to HealthManagement.org about this experience, which was both terrifying and amazing. When it became clear how...
Burning Platform for Change: COVID-19 Experience in Ghana
In mid-July, Ghana was among the African countries most affected by COVID-19. Infectious disease outbreaks are not uncommon here, and there has always been a critical need for the private and public sector to collaborate more. The situation is changing, however. HealthManagement.org talked to Dr Elikem Tamaklo, head of the oldest private group medical practice in Ghana, about his experience with COVID-19, t...
Traversing the Unknown Frontlines - COVID-19 from a Resource Limited East African Setting
The purpose of this article is to provide frontline clinical and operational experiences in East Africa in the management of the COVID-19 storm – specifically within the dialysis setting – leading to best-in-class patient outcomes. Introduction to COVID-19 globally and locally.Effective means of rapid response, organisational planning and preparing for the unknown.Leveraging the “infodemic” and t...
So Not Your Regular Flu
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit nursing homes around the world particularly hard. With the infection spreading among both staff and residents, the consequences have been horrible. A director of one such facility in the U.S., who has survived the disease herself, talks to HealthManagement.org about this devastating experience and the need to change attitudes in those who still do not take COVID-19 seriously....
Superheroes: Behind the Scenes of COVID-19
Are the real heroes only those in the hospital actively caring for COVID-19 patients or are those behind the scenes also playing an important role? During the pandemic, care is not only necessary for COVID-19 patients but also for those with other illnesses and diseases.Those in primary care have had to switch to providing virtual care and the transition is not easy.Those who do not have the clinical expe...
We Salute Our Healthcare Heroes!
The U.S. is one of the countries that has been hit hardest with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stories about the frontline healthcare staff’s plight are many. Lack of basic protective equipment, overburden, anxiety are just the tip of the iceberg of issues they have to face every day. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) talked to an unnamed frontline nurse about her work in a Texas hospital, an...
Battle to be Won by Virtue
Healthcare workers around the world are overburdened, exhausted and anxious. But some of them take the time to sit back and reflect on what is happening. One such person, a leading expert at the COVID-19 reference hospital in Cyprus, talks about the feelings during the pandemic and the meaning of virtue in the face of a crisis. Watching the dramatic expansion of the epidemic in China, although in th...
Healthcare Warriors of India
In India, the challenges of COVID-19 are exacerbated by the density of population, poverty, lack of education and hygiene culture. To help the public and support those on the frontline, over 7,000 healthcare professionals joined the nationwide ‘We Doctors’ healthcare campaign. Dr Sunita Dube, a radiologist by profession, spoke to HealthManagement.org about the initiatives of her organisation, MedScapeI...
Fighting the Supervillain with Everyone’s Superpowers
The new superheroes of today – those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight – are widely acclaimed, but not always properly rewarded. While foundational changes of the system are necessary, there is a much simpler way to acknowledge their efforts, an ethics expert opines. This way, in fact, would turn anyone into a superhero themselves. Superheroes are an indelible part of our culture, and COVID-19 �...
Point-of-View
Through Crisis to Better Healthcare
The COVID-19 ‘stress test’ has highlighted the shortcomings of healthcare systems worldwide. In Eastern Europe, the need is evident for the hospitals to upgrade on every level, from their infrastructures to their processes. HealthManagement.org spoke to Konstantinos Deligiannis, who leads the activities of GE Healthcare in the region, about comprehensive development of healthcare and the potential of p...
Helping to Get Spain’s Largest COVID-19 Treatment Center Up And Running
The severity of COVID-19 grew chillingly real for Carlos Jimenez by the third week of March, when the disease claimed the life of his closest friend’s father. He realized that he could no longer bear to watch the suffering that had enveloped seemingly every aspect of life. “I would move boxes or whatever else I needed to do,” he says. “I wanted to go to the trenches and do my part.” Another clo...
Crossing the Rubicon to a Digitally Enabled Medical Care
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a catalyst for healthcare to embrace digital care. Affidea Group is already on this path and has outlined four priority areas to ensure the best possible care delivery for patients, doctors and providers. Due to the need of minimal physical contact, the pandemic accelerated the healthcare’s transition to digital care delivery.Safety is more important than ever, with rei...
Winning Practices
Remote Work and Virtual Consultations: Emergency Setup
For a hospital in Spain, the national state of emergency meant two major practical challenges – to provide tools for the staff to work remotely, and to roll out a virtual consultation system. Two hospital leaders talk about the challenges they had to overcome on this way and explain the technicalities of the implemented changes. Declaration of the emergency state in Spain had several major consequences...
Telemedicine in Time of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the demand for telemedicine services. Not all health systems, however, were ready to switch to this new format, so some corporate providers decided to offer their telehealth platforms for free. The CEO of one such company talks about the thinking behind the step and shares his vision of telemedicine’s role in the future. Key PointsThe COVID-19 pandemic has presented a...
COVID-19 Challenges of IT Team
After a state of emergency was declared in Spain in mid-March, an IT team in a leading hospital had to develop a number of systems, upgrade the infrastructure and provide training, to ensure that the delivery of care continues smoothly. Two experts who led this massive effort share their experience and outline the new areas for work, which the pandemic has brought to the forefront. Despite the state of...
Digital Health After COVID-19 - #medicosfrentealcovid Experience
Supporting the efforts to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 infections, a company in Spain has encouraged health professionals to volunteer and offer teleconsultations to the population using its telemedicine platform free of charge. An expert who led the project explains why this was necessary from a business perspective and how telehealth is here to stay and grow. Today, eHealth is a powerful ecosyste...