Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service II (Projects aiming to enhance clinical safety and outcomes, clinical governance / risk management)
Proposed Topic (Second preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service III (Projects aiming at quality service to patients and their carers)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Lei WS, Pang C, Tam K, Fan T, Lin S, Leung KH
Affiliation :
Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, United Christian Hospital
Introduction :
Introduction : The Covid-19 pandemic posed tremendous stress on the health care system and many non-urgent and outpatient services were withheld. It is the consensus among our team members that haematological malignancies require urgent chemotherapy and even haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and such treatment cannot be delayed and inpatient services must be maintained despite the pandemic. Multiple strategies were designed to ensure that immunocompromised patients were protected.
Objectives :
Objectives : To evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies used to ensure the safe delivery of inpatient haematology services during the pandemic.
Methodology :
Methodology : Multiple strategies were employed to protect our patients from the Covid-19 infection, namely: staff training, hardware improvements, screening of patients and staff, cohorting new admissions, early detection and isolation.
Result & Outcome :
Results : Early in the pandemic, multiple training sessions were delivered to all staff to ensure everyone understood the transmission routes and infection control measures. Two large exhaust fans were installed in two cubicles to increase the local ventilation to twelve air changes per hour. Additional units of IQAir® HealthPro® 100 with HEPA filtration system were installed for air filtration. Each patient had their own designated equipment such as sphygmomanometer and cardiac monitor to avoid cross infection. All patients were screened by rapid antigen test (RAT) before entering the ward and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were done before elective admissions. Every staff member was required to perform daily RAT and twice weekly PCR testing. New emergency admissions will stay in admission cubicles with enhanced ventilation and partition until their PCR results are available. Patients positive for Covid-19 will be isolated in a single room or transferred to quarantine wards immediately. Throughout the pandemic, there is no outbreak of Covid-19 infection in our haematology ward while all chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation services were provided without interruption. 17 and 20 haematopoietic stem cell transplants were done in 2021 and 2022 respectively in our center which has a nominal capacity of 12 transplants per year.
Conclusions: Despite the highly contagious nature of Covid-19 virus, prevention of outbreak is still possible with the multiple strategies approach. The key to success is dedicated staff, teamwork and professional support from infectious diseases and microbiology teams.
