COVID-19: Hospitals Adopt Special Measures, Open Video Consultations

With the COVID 19 pandemic emerging as a major health threat, Hospitals have adopted strict measures to ensure safe deliveries and prevention of infection for expecting mothers. At Rainbow Children Hospitals, New Delhi as many as 87 deliveries were performed in March with proactive prevention measures including video consultations to minimize hospital visits and strict testing protocols for all women and their attendants.

Spread over five cities in India, Rainbow Children’s Hospitals and BirthRight by Rainbow see almost 1 lakh children and deliver 1300 babies per month. With strict restrictions on movement and safety concerns forcing people to stay at home, the Hospital has thrown open video consultation facilities to help women and children seek medical advice for Gynaecological and Paediatric issues from the safety of their homes. The Hospital is already conducting as many as 60 consultations per day through video conferencing.

At the same time, strict measures have been adopted to ensure that women experience safe deliveries without the threat of cross infection in the hospital. The infection-prevention protocols include thorough testing and screening of expecting mothers as well as their attendants before they are admitted for delivery.

“We have initiated a series of measures to ensure that women experience safe deliveries at our Hospitals. Apart from opening the tele-consultation route for expecting women and children, we have also adopted strict protocols while admitting women for delivery. Every expecting mother is first screened and tested for Covid 19 along with the attendant who is expected to accompany her to the hospital. Once both are found clear of any infection, they are taken in and not allowed to step out of the hospital until discharge. Similarly,  labor rooms are sanitized every day and healthcare workers are following high standards of infection control measures,” said Dr Ramesh Kancharla, Chairman & Managing Director.

For expecting mothers, the Covid 19 outbreak has presented a particularly challenging time. With pregnancy lowering the body’s immune response, expecting women are supposed to be more prone to infectious diseases. This is why they are required to undertake extreme precautions. On the other hand, expecting women are required to have their regular pre-natal check-ups and ultrasounds done in the course of their pregnancy.

It is important for all healthcare providers to leverage the benefit of technology at this critical time to help offer much-needed medical care to patients. This will not only ensure that other patients are not neglected due to the Covid 19 pandemic but will also help contain the disease spread by ensuring that hospital visits are minimized.

In view of the current health scenario, as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, several constraints have been implemented to limit the spread of the pandemic. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease and spreads rapidly through droplets when a person sneezes or coughs. To contain this pandemic, the need of the hour is social distancing.

Combining the diligence of its ground staff and the advancement in technology, Rainbow Children’s Hospital has made the process of getting a consultation with our doctor, as seamless and easy as possible, while not compromising on the precautions that must be maintained during this time.