In the last few months, the health care industry has been fighting the steady rise of cases throughout different regions and countries worldwide. The rise of even more cases of the coronavirus has led to most health care industries worldwide to start pooling resources in fighting the rise of cases. However, this doesn’t mean that patients that are not struck by COVID should be ignored. Although time, money, and resources are being diverted to the fight against the pandemic, much of these resources will still need to be made readily available to patients that aren’t in an emergency room or in quarantine facilities.
But even major health care establishments and systems around the world have been facing a steady decline of non-COVID patients, with a decline reaching around 60% in certain areas. What’s the cause of such a decline? Most would say that patients seeking routine and emergency care are too afraid of going out and exposing themselves to COVID-19. Most of these patients don’t want to go to their doctor out of fear that they will encounter a patient in the medical establishment that might be positive for the virus. In some cases, patients are just opting to stay at home and putting off any medical treatment since they’ve lost much of their medical benefits after being laid off from work.
Many experts would say that the drastic effects that the pandemic has on non-COVID patients are an untold toll on the population. With the spotlight being on COVID-19, most patients are forced to neglect much of their symptoms that require special medical attention, or the health care system they have to rely on has been too busy handling hundreds of thousands of cases of COVID-19 patients.
Since most non-COVID patients still need a good amount of medical attention, it’s important that medical health care establishments provide the necessary means of managing non-COVID patients. But how does the health care industry do it? Here’s what you’ll need to know.
Strategies in Managing Patients
Although taking care of COVID-19 patients showing signs of acute symptoms is a top priority, most experts have been encouraging frontliners to manage patients who don’t have COVID-19. This is especially true for patients that have medically complex conditions who need to force themselves into quarantine in their area.
Fortunately, much of the world’s health care system has devices key strategies in ensuring that health care is effectively provided to everyone in need. Here are some effective strategies:
Taking the Initiative in High-Risk Areas
First and foremost, high-risk areas will usually have a good number of COVID-19 cases. These are also areas where most patients are stuck at home for fear of getting infected. In most cases, emergency rooms are the first areas that will have become overburdened during the pandemic because most non-COVID patients decide to neglect their symptoms, which means that they’ll end up at the ER if no proper treatment is being administered.
Even though most doctors have been adapting to a more “remote” approach through telemedicine, most would say it’s not enough to provide professional care for patients. To avoid emergency rooms being overburdened while ensuring increasing survival rates of patients, doctors should take up a more active role in helping patients with chronic conditions. Follow-ups and monitoring are especially important to help patients that need a steady amount of care.
Location Consolidation Among Health Care Establishments
Another way of improving logistics for hospitals and healthcare agencies is by location-pooling. Simply speaking, this is when hospitals in several regions, whether public or private, work together by sharing non-COVID equipment and services. This will help manage an influx of patients while also handling a variety of different scenarios and conditions.
But other than patients that are temporarily afflicted with a certain ailment or disease, let’s not forget about most people with disabilities that have to cut their trip short to their clinic and will need to stay home for the majority of the pandemic. How will they be able to access much-needed healthcare and consultations?
Various clinics are gradually migrating to a more “digital” and remote approach by connecting to a collective network with other clinics in the same field of practice. If you’re looking to get more engagements and leads to your clinic, especially one geared towards patients with hearing disabilities, you might want to consider HH acquisitions as they will help build bridges so you’ll get the most value for your clinic.
Separating COVID Patients Based On Status
Whether the patient has COVID-19 or not, they’ll need to stay at the hospital for an extended time to avoid the risk of infecting others and ensuring that these patients are in the right functional condition. Most of the time, these COVID patients are transferred to rehabilitation facilities, or emergency facilities, depending on the severity of their condition. When they’re transferred to facilities that are specifically designed for aftercare and recovery, this will avoid placing stress on the system.
Although managing non-COVID patients during the pandemic can be a challenge, it is definitely possible with these effective strategies in mind. Although resources will need to be split for those that are currently treating COVID patients and those that are treating non-COVID patients, it’s still possible to consolidate resources to expedite the healthcare process.