Bengaluru Kidwai can diagnose cancer, plan treatment on first visit
BENGALURU : In a move to improve cancer care, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) has introduced a new patient registration system at its outpatient department (OPD). This innovative concept aims to reduce the waiting time for cancer patients, prevent them from running around the hospital and provide them with a more comfortable experience.
Normally, it takes more than three weeks to work up a cancer patient, including proper diagnosis and planning for appropriate treatment. However, the new system aims to complete all this in a single day.
“Every day, we receive nearly 100 patients. Under the new system, any cancer patient visiting the hospital will be directed to a reclining chair. All work-up processes will be conducted right there. A registration team will approach the patients, check if they qualify for government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka scheme and register their names. This will happen in over 20 minutes,” Dr V Lokesh, KMIO director, said.
Monitoring patients’ vitals crucial, says doc
“Our staff will then prepare the patient’s file and all cashless billing processes will be completed on-site. Once the registration is done, our nursing team will take over and evaluate the patient’s vital signs and the baseline record is made which will be crucial for monitoring his/her progress throughout the treatment journey,” Dr Lokesh said.
“Then, the blood samples of the patient will be sent for basic and oncological tests and reports are generated within two hours. Doctors will visit the patient at the recliner. They will check for any visible tumour. They may take up needle biopsy which will give results in two hours.
Based on the reports, a case history will be prepared and ‘staging’ of the cancer will be done. If needed, the doctors will talk to specialists immediately and decide the treatment to be done,” he said. He said to reach this stage, patients had to spend more than two weeks. The new system eliminates this delay.
In certain cases, however, the patients have to wait for the biopsy results to diagnose the cancer. “By implementing the fast-track new patient registration system, we are revolutionising the way cancer patients are treated, ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment planning. We can confidently say that this system is not there in any leading private hospitals.
We want to add ECG, pulmonary function test, echocardiogram, ultrasound and other tests at the bedside. We need mobile equipment for the same. We will go for tenders soon to procure equipment and additional manpower,” he said. He said the hospital now offers 60% of the facilities under the new system. Once the hospital gets equipment and additional staff, it will offer all facilities under the new system.