DaytoDay Health (a US-based patient-care organisation) has partnered with Heal Foundation (a not-for-profit organisation) to deliver the first-ever home patient management programme for coronavirus patients in India. Free of cost.
This comprehensive digital-first care management programme claims to enable safe, effective and affordable management of patients who have a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 but are not critical (i.e. don’t require ICU-level care). DaytoDay Health’s CEO, Prem Sharma, enlightens us further. Excerpts:
How important is in-house patient care?
There is a massive spread of COVID-19 within the hospital staff. Statistics show that about 22 per cent of healthcare workers tending to COVID-19 patients contract the infection. With passing days, the number infected patients is rising while the number of healthy clinicians is decreasing (as they are getting infected while tending to patients). This is the reason why we need an in-house patient management system.
Tell us about your comprehensive digital-first care management programme.
Patient engagement is the key to preventing the spread of the corona virus. The good news is that 95 per cent of the patients with COVID-19 symptoms can be managed at home. But the worrying part is that as more people are visiting hospitals for treatment, the spread of virus is increasing.
Not only do these people need to stay home, but they also need care at home. This is where DaytoDay is helping patients [directly] and the hospitals and healthcare professionals [by extension]. Our programme guides individuals and provides at-home care for a full recovery. We provide assistance for physical healthcare and mental well-being. We assist with self-isolation as well.
What sort of patients can your system manage?
About 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases show ‘mild to moderate symptoms’. It is these suspected and diagnosed cases that we can manage. The healthcare system should be managing critical cases and not be over-burdened with non-critical ones.
Does your workforce consist of only medical professionals, or are there any (un)trained volunteers as well?
We have both clinical and non-clinical workforce. We train volunteers to help with a lot of generic activities like patient on-boarding so that clinical staff can focus on clinical issues.
How are you reaching out to people?
We are in discussion with four state governments, and are open to help private initiatives. Our only aim is to enable and empower people/institutions to fight the disease. Anyone needing help can reach out to us on covid.care@daytoday.health. We would be delighted to serve as the technical partner to the Government of India, and provide our platform and service technical issues free of cost.
Features of the programme
The programme involves daily health check and vital tracking tools to track key signs, medications and triage symptoms. It has tools which allow patients to identify new and/or escalated symptoms so as to receive the right medical intervention. If a case deteriorates, the ‘care coach’ gets an alert for further action. Our technology is configured to update quickly and reliably based on emerging data around COVID-19.
Factual data
The programme has comprehensive library of simple-to-digest content, such as text, videos and links covering COVID-19 facts, isolation management, tips on stress reduction and relaxation activities.
Log on to covidfighters.in to register