The Department of Health (DOH)-Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) on Thursday turned over to the Quezon Medical Center in Lucena City the first teleICU system to ease the monitoring of a critical Covid patient in an intensive care unit (ICU), and protect health-care workers (HCWs) from possible infection.
“It is a cardiovascular monitoring device that will record the patient’s temperature, respiration rate, ECG trace, heart rate and movement in real time,” said former Regional Director Eduardo C. Janairo, one of the guests of honor during the ceremony, adding that the “lifesignal” patch should be placed on a patient’s chest for five days.
Janairo stated that he initiated the project to protect HCWs in ICUs because they are constantly at high risk of contracting the virus due to their proximity and exposure while treating critically ill Covid patients.
“We can lessen these risks and still provide optimal care while minimizing the risk of acquiring the virus infection and ensuring their health and safety,” he said. “And through teleICU, we can manage patients remotely through an intensive care team that will monitor Covid patients in ICUs and provide updates on their health status to intensive care physicians remotely in order for them to deliver timely and effective critical care services.”
The data gathered by the lifesignal patch will be sent wirelessly and displayed in real time on a monitor. If symptoms develop, the device and its data platform will alert health-care providers to take necessary action.
The lifesignal patch is disposable and can be self-applied and most and reduces cross-contamination risk and time spent attaching individual devices to a patient.
A total of 600 lifesignal patches were procured by the DOH regional office that will be used for critically ill Covid patients admitted at the Quezon Medical Center in Lucena City.
OIC-Director Paula Paz M. Sydiongco stated the teleICU project can help protect health-care providers and also mitigate the rising Covid infection in Quezon, particularly in Lucena City which was recently placed under a strict modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).
“We will be deploying four more teleICU systems that will be placed at the San Juan Hospital in Batangas, Laguna Medical Center and San Pablo City General Hospital in Laguna and at the Southern Tagalog Regional Hospital in Cavite,” she said.
“Our health workers are the lifeblood of our health-care system. We need to keep our health workers safe to ensure an effective health-care system keeping patients safe, relieving their suffering and saving their lives,” she emphasized.
TeleICU, also known as eICU, is the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients by a remote intensive care physician or intensivist and critical care nurses with the use of telecommunication such as videoconferencing, providing real-time audio and visual services to ICU centers regardless of their locations.
Janairo undescored that the current Covid pandemic is an opportunity for innovations and it is important to focus on improved health outcomes and reduce health-care cost.
“There will be many lessons that can be learned during this pandemic that will provide innovations and that will help shape the future of medicine. Telemedicine, and particularly teleICU, are among them which will play a significant role in creating a new model of health care for the future,” Janairo said.
Daily scorecard
A total of 5,484 additional Covid-19 cases were logged by the DOH on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,455,585.
The DOH also recorded 3,925 recoveries and 191 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 3.4 percent (49,036) are active cases, 94.9 percent (1,380,899) have recovered, 1.76 percent (25,650) have died.
Nine duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 6 are recoveries.
Moreover, 152 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on July 6, 2021 and all labs were able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
PRC Moderna vaccines
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has officially started administering Moderna vaccines against Covid-19 after receiving its first procured batch of 800 out of the total 200,000 doses on July 3.
“The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is very happy that we could assist in Covid-19 vaccination. Every shot is important as every injection takes us a step further from the threats of a contagion,” said PRC Chairman and CEO Sen. Richard J. Gordon.
During the organization’s Bakuna Bus launch last week, Gordon clarified that the Moderna jabs will be given “at cost,” but the PRC is “not” making a profit out of it.
The PRC said that they purchased doses for their PRC Platinum members, “who will be paying for the vaccine at cost in the amount of P3,500.” Platinum membership is open for non-members at P1,000 each which comes with an accident insurance coverage.
Aside from the Moderna vaccines purchased by the PRC, another 5,000 doses of the same brand will be coming from the government.
For this allotment, he said, the PRC will prioritize overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and seafarers leaving the country within the next 4 months.
“We are giving our OFWs and sailors an advantage so they could safely continue working for their families, lessening the need for financial assistance,” said Gordon, as he called on labor and manpower agencies to help put together a list of eligible candidates.