Hospitals, communities show patients and families that they really care

Hospitals and residential communities have extended a helping hand to patients and their families during the new wave of COVID-19 cases in Shanghai.

Shanghai Renji Hospital’s west campus launched online visits for the families of patients in intensive care units. It also updated the families on a patient’s condition.

Xing Shunpeng, a doctor from the hospital’s Department of Critical Care Medicine, said family members are invited to speak to patients via video link twice a day with a doctor and nurse in charge. Each of these sessions lasts 10 to 15 minutes.

“The doctor speaks about the patient’s condition and possible adjustments to treatment before making way for the patient to speak with his or her loved ones,” he said.

Cui Qin, the department’s head nurse, said one of the 12 patients in the intensive care unit is a middleaged man from another area of China who underwent a kidney transplant on Jan 20.

“His wife rushed home to take care of their children after the surgery was performed. She said she was touched that the hospital had been so considerate at a time when the pandemic was keeping families apart,” she said.

Cui said patients’ families were welcome to add the department to their contact list on WeChat and that medical workers handle their inquiries at all times of the day and night.

Doctors from the hospital launched an online outpatients service while they were in centralized quarantine.

On Jan 25, Ma Xiong, a chief physician from the Digestive System Department, set up an online consultation and diagnosis service for patients. Ma had been placed under hotel quarantine in Shanghai, as he worked at the hospital the previous week.

At the hospital’s branch in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, an assistant doctor sits with a patient in the outpatient clinic, as Ma joins them online, browsing the patient’s medical history and reading CT scan and other test results with the help of 5G technology.

“The technology enables me to see the CT image from the computer screen just as clearly as if it is in front of me. By doing this work, I also feel less anxious and lonely,” Ma, 52, said.

Each of the more than 1,700 patients, their families and medical workers quarantined at Renji Hospital received a package containing a mug bearing the institution’s name, vitamin C tablets, a bar of chocolate, 20 face masks and a letter of appreciation.

A senior patient in the bone disease ward, surnamed Li, said she would keep the mug to remind her of the collective efforts made during “this special period” in the fight to stop the virus spreading.

Meanwhile, on Jan 26, the campuses of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in the Huangpu and Yangpu districts of Shanghai were locked down after “substandard” nucleic acid test results were reported among some staff members.

To ensure that every pregnant patient had a bed, blanket and pillow, the hospital quickly made areas such as the VIP clinic, ultrasound examination rooms and day surgery available for them. Free dinner was provided, along with water dispensers and phone chargers.

Soon after midnight, the lockdown was removed after the hospital announced that the substandard test results had come back negative.

Residents of the Zhaotong Road neighborhood — a medium-risk area — quarantined in hotels were allowed to bring their pet dogs with them. The animals are walked by health workers.

In the Guixi neighborhood, which has also been locked down, a truck provided by local enterprise Bright Food Group has delivered at least five hot breakfast set options to more than 1,000 residents every day since Jan 24, the day the community was categorized as a medium-risk area.

Most of the meals are sold at a 20 percent discount.