Clinical tools and practice guidelines developed for COVID-19 preparedness and use at a secondary care hospital in India

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) that causes the disease coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has posed major challenges for health-care workers worldwide. Once the lockdown is relaxed in India, there might be an increase in the number of positive cases. Simple tools and practice guidelines may make clinical tasks faster, easier, and safer. Toward this objective, governments, hospital administrators, medical associations, health-care providers, and policy-makers worldwide have published multiple papers and guidelines. However, there remain several controversies on the pathophysiology of COVID-19, leading to uncertainty on what should and should not be done. It is in such a context that some simple tools and practice guidelines, based on best available evidence, are being shared on this platform. The contents of these tools have been taken from the World Health Organization guidelines and recent publications on COVID-19. The tools have been designed by a senior anaesthesiologist/medical administrator at a NABH-accredited hospital with over three decades of expertise in the private health-care systems. The purpose of these guidelines is to be prepared to deliver safe and standardized care to COVID-19 patients, while maintaining the ease of work environment for hospital staff. It is understood that all the health-care workers will be wearing personal protective equipment as per the guidelines released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. There are nine forms, namely patient workflow, screening form, triage form, COVID-19 severity score tool, outpatient management guidelines, advise; COVID-19 inpatient management guidelines, modified early warning signs chart, and oxygen therapy flow chart. These are simple, on-paper tools, and guidelines for use at secondary care hospitals, in compliance with the governmental regulations.