Hospitals offer home care for COVID patients

With the health care system in Metro Manila nearing its limit, many hospitals are now offering home care services for COVID-19 patients.

Home care services from hospitals can now be availed of by patients with mild COVID, to be provided with necessary medical care, according to Department of Health (DOH) Technical Working Group (TWG) member Anna Ong Lim.

“Many hospitals are now offering home care for COVID cases, and we have seen many of them share in various social media platforms because there is really such a big need to answer the question, ‘How do I make sure that my family member is cared for properly?’” Lim said at a virtual forum last Saturday night.

“So this is one portal that we can use so that at the outset, we have a health care professional guiding us on the steps to be able to provide home care for our family member,” she added.

One hospital is offering a 10-day home care package amounting to P17,000, which includes laboratory tests, vitamins and 10 telemedicine sessions with a doctor and a nurse.

Lim stressed the importance of establishing contact with health care professionals and monitoring COVID patients

who are confined at home.

She emphasized that home-based care provided by health professionals could be difficult at this time due to a severe shortage of health care workers, but she maintained that civilians could provide care as long as there is an open communication line with doctors.

“This has to be established so that should there be an emergency, channels of communication are already open,” she said.

Only one member of the family should be assigned as a caregiver and he or she must be healthy and reliable to assess the patient’s condition.

Lim said establishing contact is necessary for caregivers to immediately identify worsening signs or symptoms at the earliest possible time.

“Whenever a patient’s symptoms become worse from initial assessment, then it should be an indicator to seek urgent care,” she added.

Caregivers should regularly monitor the patient’s respiratory rate, blood pressure and, if possible, the oxygen level, according to Lim.

Those experiencing difficulty in breathing in the form of persistent chest pain or inability to complete a sentence when speaking should be immediately taken to a hospital.

Confusion and inability to stay awake are also signs of decreased oxygen levels, requiring immediate medical attention.

Aside from providing necessary intervention, Lim said it is also important to ensure that families continue practicing infection control if there is a COVID-positive patient being managed at home.

Movements of the COVID patient must be limited and, if possible, he or she must be provided with one bathroom and toilet.

Lim, however, said home care is not appropriate for all mild COVID patients.

She added that before deciding on home-based care, the risk factors of the patient must be assessed and the capacity of the environment must be evaluated.

Home care for mild cases, Lim said, lasts for at least 10 days before showing improvement.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) is preparing to convert some ships into hospitals to accommodate COVID-19 patients.

The PMA is scouting for possible passenger ships that can be temporarily converted into emergency COVID hospitals to be manned by members of the association and other health care groups.

Hospital ships, according to the organization, can immediately help decongest hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) and patients would no longer have to wait to be admitted.

The PMA said the “hospital ships” can dock at various ports in the NCR Plus bubble and will be paired with a specific land-based NCR hospital as its extension facility.