Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department
Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Not only that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a complete lockdown but also burdened healthcare systems across the world immensely. Objective: In this paper, we discuss the different...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Rawalpindi Medical University
2020-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.journalrmc.com/index.php/JRMC/article/view/1416 |
| _version_ | 1828909946384678912 |
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| author | Obaid ur Rahman Nayyur Qayyum Afzal Aleem Khan Muhammad Ammar Aslam Syed Zohaib Haider |
| author_facet | Obaid ur Rahman Nayyur Qayyum Afzal Aleem Khan Muhammad Ammar Aslam Syed Zohaib Haider |
| author_sort | Obaid ur Rahman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Not only that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a complete lockdown but also burdened healthcare systems across the world immensely.
Objective: In this paper, we discuss the different strategies we adopted in the Orthopaedics Department of District Head Quarter [DHQ] hospital Rawalpindi, during this ongoing pandemic and share our experience of successfully but cautiously providing orthopedic services to patients in a public hospital. We compare our workload and output of May 2020 [pandemic phase] to May 2019 [standard/normal phase].
Methodology: The Hospital policy was changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. We increased public awareness and reduced load in the OPD using different strategies. We postponed all elective cases; focusing our logistics and resources only on the patients in urgent need of surgical management. A minimum number of doctors and OTAs were allocated on each list. Inwards, the patient stay was reduced. As a standard PCR test for COVID-19 was expensive, we devised our screening through history, examination, and routine investigations.
Results: The average stay inwards was reduced from 6.4±4.6 days in May 2019 to 2.7±3.6 days in May 2020. The decrease in the stay was statistically significant (p=.0206) and was associated with a 24.4% increase in the number of total patient admissions in May 2020 (n=56) as compared to May 2019 (n=45). The number of surgeries performed month to month was very similar in normal and pandemic periods.
Our OPD patient attendance dropped from 200-250 patients per day in 2019 to 60-70 during the ongoing pandemic phase.
Conclusion: We believe that sharing experiences between health care actors allows us to develop an effective strategy to provide the very best care to our patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T18:34:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-52c4114db5f849a093911fb79e378194 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1683-3562 1683-3570 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T18:34:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | Rawalpindi Medical University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College |
| spelling | doaj.art-52c4114db5f849a093911fb79e3781942022-12-21T23:35:23ZengRawalpindi Medical UniversityJournal of Rawalpindi Medical College1683-35621683-35702020-08-0124Supp-110.37939/jrmc.v24iSupp-1.1416Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic DepartmentObaid ur Rahman0Nayyur QayyumAfzal Aleem KhanMuhammad Ammar AslamSyed Zohaib Haiderassistant professor orthopedicsIntroduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Not only that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a complete lockdown but also burdened healthcare systems across the world immensely. Objective: In this paper, we discuss the different strategies we adopted in the Orthopaedics Department of District Head Quarter [DHQ] hospital Rawalpindi, during this ongoing pandemic and share our experience of successfully but cautiously providing orthopedic services to patients in a public hospital. We compare our workload and output of May 2020 [pandemic phase] to May 2019 [standard/normal phase]. Methodology: The Hospital policy was changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. We increased public awareness and reduced load in the OPD using different strategies. We postponed all elective cases; focusing our logistics and resources only on the patients in urgent need of surgical management. A minimum number of doctors and OTAs were allocated on each list. Inwards, the patient stay was reduced. As a standard PCR test for COVID-19 was expensive, we devised our screening through history, examination, and routine investigations. Results: The average stay inwards was reduced from 6.4±4.6 days in May 2019 to 2.7±3.6 days in May 2020. The decrease in the stay was statistically significant (p=.0206) and was associated with a 24.4% increase in the number of total patient admissions in May 2020 (n=56) as compared to May 2019 (n=45). The number of surgeries performed month to month was very similar in normal and pandemic periods. Our OPD patient attendance dropped from 200-250 patients per day in 2019 to 60-70 during the ongoing pandemic phase. Conclusion: We believe that sharing experiences between health care actors allows us to develop an effective strategy to provide the very best care to our patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.https://www.journalrmc.com/index.php/JRMC/article/view/1416COVID-19, Pandemic, Orthopaedics. |
| spellingShingle | Obaid ur Rahman Nayyur Qayyum Afzal Aleem Khan Muhammad Ammar Aslam Syed Zohaib Haider Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College COVID-19, Pandemic, Orthopaedics. |
| title | Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department |
| title_full | Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department |
| title_fullStr | Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department |
| title_full_unstemmed | Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department |
| title_short | Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in DHQ Orthopaedic Department |
| title_sort | meeting the challenge of covid 19 in dhq orthopaedic department |
| topic | COVID-19, Pandemic, Orthopaedics. |
| url | https://www.journalrmc.com/index.php/JRMC/article/view/1416 |
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