Achievements and challenges of management of Covid-19 patients at Mikaelyan University Hospital

Abstract

More than two years since the first SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported, the COVID-19 pandemic remains an acute global emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the lives of people across the world. Its health, economic, political, educational, and societal consequences have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable. Apart from being a global health concern, COVID-19 is having major consequences on the world economy. The pandemic has challenged local, national, regional and global capacities to prepare and respond. Health systems globally have employed three common approaches to rapidly scale up health system infrastructure, namely by constructing new treatment facilities, converting public venues and reconfiguring existing medical facilities to provide care for patients with COVID-19. Considerable efforts were being made behind the scenes to develop new strategies to ensure adequate public healthcare infrastructure and workplace capacities. Hospitals have repurposed and reallocated internal space and redeployed resources to manage COVID-19 patients. Countries discharged many patients from hospitals to their homes and postponed non-critical treatment and elective procedures. Almost all hospitals adopted a strategy of hospital approach to COVID-19 with the different primary and secondary goals. In this article we present a strategy of Mikaelyan University Hospital located in Yerevan, Armenia in managing patients with COVID-19. Preparing for patients’ admission, developing of internal and external hospital communications, reconstruction, redistribution of human resources was carried out in parallel with trainings of health care workers, patients’ education, etc. Mikaelyan University Hospital laboratory was reorganized to implement the new approaches and goals in managing of unprecedented number of patients and to secure quality control. The number of intensive care unit beds has been increased, also all possible efforts have been made to obtain all the required equipment and maintenance. Overall, the strategy can be considered successful as it was based on the multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach including academic sector, clinicians, leadership, patients, decision makers, nurses, radiologists, psychologists, intensivists, etc.